John referred to some of Paul's songs as "granny music", music hall influenced pieces that would fit in on the a vaudeville stage....jaunty, tap dancing, tux-and-top hat stuff.  For years this contibuted to the perception that Paul wrote the light stuff while John was the rocker. Maybe so, but "Helter Skelter" is as wild as "Revolution" and some of John's work could be pretty sappy. Looking at his output from the '70's we see that Paul wrote quite a few rockers and power pop gems that cohere together nicely....or nastily, if you prefer. Not that there is anything wrong with "Granny Music". The man turns 80 today after all. Sir Paul, happy birthday to you.

Happy 75th birthday to Linda Ronstadt.  She doesn't have the same alt-country cred as Emmylou, but she deserved it. She didn't have that direct link to Gram, but she probably did the best job of pulling off his mix of rock, country and soul. Maybe our ilk holds the Eagles against her. Maybe it's because there was nothing "alt" about her. Growing up, her music was everywhere, whether it was Dad's country station - WMAQ, or my aunt's pop station - WOKY.  Her last two "rock" albums - Mad Love and Get Closer - ventured away from the country. Perhaps too established to be new wave or power pop, she put some punchy covers by the Cretones and Billy Thermal and Elvis Costello. While her earlier cover of "Allison" featured the anodyne west coast production values of the time, two of the three covers on Mad Love  hold their own. Even her oldies covers are primarily British Invasion era pop of the type favored by the skinny tie set. Over the pas...

We're coming up on the 40th anniversary of John Lennon's murder.  Last week I saw that somebody is auctioning off his last autograph, which he signed for his murderer. Forty years ago last month he released his last album. A joint effort with Yoko, I don't know if it is a great album, but it had three charting singles as well as another track that received significant airplay on classic rock and AOR stations. Not a bad showing for anybody, but after all of these years thats about as far as I've ever been able to get into it. One story is that John was inspired to go back into the studio after hearing McCartney II  earlier in the year. The year before, 1979, saw George's release of George Harrison .  It includes an update of the White Album outtake , " Not Guilty ", played in a yacht rock style. Most of the rest of the album is the same. " Soft Hearted Hannah " has some 1969 b-side Beatleyness. The standout track was the single, "Blow Away ...

I remember reading about the collaboration between Elvis and Paul : Costello and McCartney. There was some speculation that there'd be an album....which never came to pass. Too bad, I thought. Paul hadn't made a compelling album in years and I'd long since lost track what Elvis had been putting out. In all, they wrote 14 songs together - "Back on My Feet", "Veronica", "Pads, Paws and Claws", "My Brave Face", "Don't Be Careless Love", "That Day is Done", "You Want Her Too", "So Like Candy", "Playboy to a Man", "The Lovers That Never Were", "Mistress and Maid", "Shallow Grave", "Tommy's Comming Home", and "Twenty Nine Fingers" -  releasing the first 12 officially between 1987 and 1996, with the last two released in original demo form on a McCartney archival release in 2017. In addition, Paul plays bass on "...This Town...