Sgt. Pepper in the Age of Social Distancing

Thanks for this Michael!
We need to laugh in these trying times.
Stay safe!!

I do wish Paul would keep out of charity concerts. After the Live Aid events in which he participated he said he was dubious about where the money actually went to. So why change now? Celebrities are already under fire for their Covid 19 responses. This thing is so vast so who are they actually helping? If Paul gave a large donation to the NHS he would receive more respect. Is his addiction to performing really that bad? He is his own worst enemy at times.

@Lara, He also said that in the very next sentence that he checked this and believed that Geldof had a reliable team behind him and that in this case he trusted that the money would go to the right places.
I suppose that he now feels that the World Health Organization is also rather trustworthy.
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As for the addiction bit  – most likely he was asked, just as he was asked in 1985. Geldof wanted him because he reckoned that if he performed millions would watch who would not watch otherwise – and donate money, of course.
“I wrote to Paul McCartney at home and asked if he would sing Let It Be. “If you do, the world will cry,” I wrote,’ said Geldof. ”
You may not be interested in his performance and I know many will ridicule him because he admittedly cannot sing as well as he used to ( and I am a bit worried in his respect as well) but a lot of people will switch this on to watch him, not Lady Gaga or Billie Eilish.
Just look at the numbers still flocking to his concerts and being more that happy with what they hear.
The point is obviously to cover all age groups and thus to get as many people to watch as possible.
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And I am pretty sure he already has privately donated to the NHS.

@Jesse. I didn’t mean to be quite so harsh on him. I don’t doubt Paul’s integrity, or Geldoff’s, for one minute.
I applaud his stand against Chinese wet markets, much the same as he did several years ago against fox hunting. Somebody has to have the guts to speak out and he’s more likely to spark real debate than some world weary charity concert. He has privately donated to the NHS over several years as well as many other organisations. I may be wrong, but considering his mother was a NHS nurse and midwife, sometimes it’s more meaningful to see actions rather than words.

Never thought I’d hear anyone compare John Lennon to Donald Trump.

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Yes, Stern often makes these verbal leaps. They don’t always make sense.

It was interesting when Stern mentioned performers like Billie Eilish recording in their bedrooms with today’s technology. He asked Paul a “what if” question about John & Paul having the same tech in their homes in Liverpool. Paul’s reply was that they’d had enough of playing in their houses, and were thrilled to be in a real, professional recording studio in 1962.

I’ve been watching old early Beatle videos on youtube. The fans packed together, the Beatles in crowded hotel rooms. It looks so strange now in the age of social distancing.

I’ve been listening to some of the Giles Martin remixes with headphones, picking out little sonic details I missed in the earlier releases. But for some reason I find myself returning to the early Beatles stuff from the first two albums. Not so much because of nostalgia, just hearing it in a fresh way.

Once a week I venture out for groceries. The very first time I visited during the Old Folks’ Hour (6am-7am) the place was packed! A long line in front of each entrance. When I got in, the aisles were so crowded, I was asking myself “What am I doing here?”

Two weeks later, I tried again, and there weren’t as many shoppers.

The logic of having the Old Folks Hour first thing in the morning is that the store is closed overnight for restocking and sanitizing. If you wait until later in the day, the young people have already emptied the shelves and handled everything that remains.

It made me feel weird, though. All the other shoppers were roughly my age. We were all teenagers in the 1970s. And the PA system was blasting music from the ’70s, like Creedence Clearwater Revival, while we all tottered along in our facemasks. I felt like I was in a sci-fi movie that I might have seen in the ’70s about a dystopian future (now) I’d find myself in as a old person.

I want to write an essay: “How To Talk To Your Cat About The Coronavirus” because she seems to wonder why my wife and I are home now all the time.

I was hoping to see the new version of the Let It Be movie, but who knows when or if theaters will open around here. I know it’ll be available for streaming, but I was really hoping for a big screen experience with booming sound and an appreciative audience. My little flatscreen isn’t the same.

Lately I’ve been seeing a TV commercial for something or another, and they use a mellow version of “All You Need Is Love” and every time I hear it I realize Goldman was right; the intro sounds just like “Three Blind Mice” !

That’s all I got. Hope all the Dullbloggers out there are doing fine and keeping positive.

RE: something I keep reading about …Paul’s addiction to performing, not counting a live performance along the years like live side, olympics, etc., I decided to count the years he toured. I may be off a number of two but don’t think so. I count that he toured 21 years out of his solo career, not even half of or at the most for tour extensions to other countries, half of it. That may be because of John’s death, stadium shows were going out by the eighties, anthology release and agreement by all solo Beatles not to release anything four years before or after.

However, the man hasn’t even toured quite half of his entire solo career. That hardly constitutes an addiction to performing. He says started touring a lot so anyone who wanted to see him could do so as most of population not born during his earlier tour years or were very small even in 93 tour. I may not be counting his later tours that extended into other countries that would have added tour years, but still, that would mean that man hasn’t even toured for half his long solo career. I have read this often about Paul but no other performer, not even the stones who live on the road practically. I keep reading the old limelight Paul stuff…be glad he is alive and feeling well enough to keep going eve if he’s not in full voice. Had he never toured or quit touring, I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy seeing him every decade of last fifty years and the man was in full voice then. I’ve read online of young fans so grateful got to see him and old fans never being able to see him and always wanting to. Had I just seen the wings over America concert I saw, the man would owe me nothing else, but I for one am so glad he kept going regardless of what folks assume his motives are.