Sir Paul

[jumbodbassman]

not sure if you have seen this yet but I loved it..  off color so lower your volume........

 

[Pilgrim]

That's a pretty serviceable imitation of Paul's voice, isn't it? 

[Chris P.]

[uwe]

He did rework the lyrics some for the released version, I have to say! From anti-Jap to pro-black, what a journey.

[OldManC]

The whole civil rights/Blackbird story is nice (if not revisionist) history, but bootlegs from the Let It Be sessions portray a McCartney with far less uh, racial sensitivity (and those aren't satire recorded by someone else). Find a few early "Get Back" rehearsal run throughs and you'll hear what I mean.   

[Pilgrim]

I think most of us are more thoughtful about racial comments and jokes than we used to be in the 60's.  I know that some of the jokes I heard and repeated then, I wouldn't think of repeating today.

[Hornisse]

Hard to imagine a movie like "Blazing Saddles" being released today. 

[uwe]

Coming from Liverpool, a harbor town, I think you are forgiven for cracking a racial slur now and then. That need not make you a racist or somebody not appreciating what Martin Luther King and Jimi Hendrix did. I'm notorious for ethnic and even racial jokes, but that doesn't - hopefully - taint my vision of other people.

Anyway, Blackbird still features prominently in Paul's set and he does tie in how things have changed with the current US President not being allowed to ride a bus in front in Atlanta not too many decades back. Funnily enough, I read the lyrics long before I heard the song (which I do not particularly like musically, like a lot of Paul's stuff too twee and over-adorned, I don't like Yesterday either): In the early seventies, in English class in The American School in Kinshasa. We were supposed to interpret the lyric/poem, this must have been 8th grade and none of us got the connection between a Blackbird and a black man.   The teacher, btw, was a Republican (one of the few at that school).

John has always had more political credibility than Paul, but was not above making the nastiest racial and anti-gay remarks either.

[eb2]

Why would it be surprising that the teacher would be a Republican?  At a time when the civil rights movement was both centered in and attacked by state and local governments run by Democrats, when the US Senate had only one black member - the first in 100 years - and he was a Republican, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was being fought against by Democrats and passed by Republicans, it should not be surprising at all, then or now when Republicans are smeared as racist.  History is a wonderful thing.  It does wonders for misconceptions and distortions.

Get Back and Get Back To The Commonwealth (No Pakistanis) are really two different songs.  There seems to be a link in the "Get Back" lyric that points back to another song though, and a more overtly racist private joke.  And of course being from Liverpool, that was ok.  When John Lennon appeared on the balcony of the city hall (or whatever the term is over there) for a civic reception for the band he couldn't help himself from doing the "sieg heil" act.  Different times.

[OldManC]

Different times.

Definitely... I think the thing I was reacting to (with Paul) is the sort of beatification that has taken place with him over the years. I'm not one to appreciate being lectured to and many of his recent political comments have gotten right up my backside due to that.

Jokes and off color remarks or lyrics can be indicative of someone having darker, hidden views, or they can be a sign that someone has a sense of humor. I tend not to read too much into them unless there are other factors involved. Either way, I'm of the opinion that the PC culture we seem to live in is all surface sheen anyway, and as such, comes off as phony to me.

The history of relations between people of different cultural backgrounds is far more intricate than the currently 'accepted' political line tries to portray. Your comments on the matter say it better than I could have. Thanks.

[uwe]

Why would it be surprising that the teacher would be a Republican?  At a time when the civil rights movement was both centered in and attacked by state and local governments run by Democrats, when the US Senate had only one black member - the first in 100 years - and he was a Republican, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was being fought against by Democrats and passed by Republicans, it should not be surprising at all, then or now when Republicans are smeared as racist.  History is a wonderful thing.  It does wonders for misconceptions and distortions.

Get Back and Get Back To The Commonwealth (No Pakistanis) are really two different songs.  There seems to be a link in the "Get Back" lyric that points back to another song though, and a more overtly racist private joke.  And of course being from Liverpool, that was ok.  When John Lennon appeared on the balcony of the city hall (or whatever the term is over there) for a civic reception for the band he couldn't help himself from doing the "sieg heil" act.  Different times.

Calm down, Jim, don't be so defensive, I'm not that simplistic to wish to insinuate that Republicans are racist and Democrats are not. IIRC, this fine young man was a Democrat when this picture of him in a rather traditional garment was taken ...

 

"Why would it be surprising that the teacher would be a Republican?" It was surprising at that school at that time because most teachers there were then proud to be from Berklee. I was anticipating the argument "of course, a leftist teacher would gladly follow Paul's revisionism on that song". That said, I have fond memories of that teacher (who was in his fifties while most of his colleagues were in their twenties), I liked him, just like I like you and George. He would even defend me when the other kids would heckle me with "kraut!" or "hun!".  

Ever since I had the good fortune of reading Gone with the Wind (at that same school!) and remembering Rhett's and Scarlett's daughter's famous quote who she loved most

"Daddy and the Demiquawts ..."

(Lamentably, her ponyriding skills were not as solid as her political tastes!)
I've been aware that the Democrats were once the traditionalist party of the Grand (or not!) Old South and the Republicans the modern, upcoming party of the urban industrial North. That changed only in comparatively recent times.

Nor is my memory so feeble that I have forgotten that the first black US Secretary of State was a Republican too.  I liked her boots a lot. Black is beautiful, white boots would have looked cheap.

[Highlander]

So frequently misquoted...

When John Lennon appeared on the balcony of the city hall (or whatever the term is over there)...

Town Hall... over there () you have Cities that are quite small places that we would know as towns - it used to be the case that a city could not be a city if it did not have a Cathedral... the City of London is around about a square mile block that contains St. Paul's Cathedral... they estimate that there have been five cathedrals on the site, the first being built in the 5th century, the present one being built in the 16th century... the best the Germans could do in WWII was put a hole in the roof - divine providence is how it is viewed, as the bomb that made the hole failed to explode... the Big Man moves in mysterious ways...

Here endeth today's lesson...


... The Beatles at Liverpool Town Hall...

[OldManC]

I remember Bolton priding itself as being the biggest not a city in England, not having have had a cathedral. I got the idea the residents were a little bothered by the distinction.  Great record/CD shop there so I visited a lot.

[Dave W]

I'm just concerned about the fact that the older Paul gets, the more he looks like Angela Lansbury.

[OldManC]

You're not kidding!