“Welcome to Wyoming, the Frontier of America’s New Gilded Age – Jackson, Wyo., has long been a refuge for the rich. But the last five years saw a boom in wealth of a kind never before seen. Across the country, the 2017 tax cuts minted hundreds of new billionaires.”
“5 Takeaways on America’s Boom in Billionaires – The number of billionaires in the United States has soared, with nowhere feeling the effects quite like Jackson, Wyo. Here’s where all that money came from.
Let’s be clear… The odds of you reading both of these articles from beginning to end are low. However, if you skim them you’ll get the point… Billionaires have changed the economic and cultural landscape in Wyoming, using their money to change laws and…
Furthermore, it was Trump’s tax cuts in 2017 which allowed a great run-up in wealth, creating new billionaires.
Now I know a war is going on in Iran, which is unfathomable if you lived through the sixties…
“And I got fury in my soul
Fury’s gonna take me to the glory goal
In my mind I can’t study war no more
Save the people! Save the children! Save the country, save the country now!”
That’s the power of music, that one Laura Nyro line has played in my brain continuously for over fifty years… Yup, we thought war was on the way out, but now we have an unstable situation in Venezuela, Cuba is teetering, and the Middle East is in flames. I don’t even want to bother with right and wrong, I’ll just say in this case it’s overwhelming. We thought when the wall fell and the U.S.S.R. fell apart a new era of world peace was being ushered in, but that was not the case.
Anyway, whenever I say anything negative about Trump and his policies, I hear from his people claiming TDS, i.e. Trump Derangement Syndrome. Other than the billionaires themselves, I want said MAGA-ites to read these two articles and defend the minting of these billionaires, their increasing wealth and how they’re tilting the playing field of America. Yup, the rank and file Trumpsters…tell me again how this is benefiting you?
You see too many have their heads in a hole. Or get their news from biased sources. They’ve got no idea what is truly going on, isn’t that what Marjorie Taylor Greene said?
I read the “Wall Street Journal,” which is surprisingly anti-Trump in many instances, which is a conundrum, because Fox News often takes an opposite stance even though both are owned by Murdoch. And the “Washington Post,” which not only fired a ton of people but has definitely slid to the right…you can tell by its editorials, the paper’s opinion. And, the mauled “New York Times,” which might end up being the only news outlet standing up to the Trump regime after Paramount swallows CNN, never mind what it’s already done at CBS. As for Bari Weiss… You know she got her job, created the “Free Press” and vaulted into the mainstream by catering to the monied class, kissing its ass and carrying its water. Read this article:
“L.A. Woman – Bari Weiss left New York five years ago under a cloud of infamy. Her exile in Hollywood paved the way for a triumphant return.”
https://apple.news/ABwYAe3IBTL6_rbA9v9zPkQ
That link is to the Apple News. You believed that old saw that information wants to be free, but the other half of that statement, that was rarely included, is that it also wants to be very expensive. Apple News+ is only $12.99 a month. Is that too much for you? Seems for many it is.
So they rely on obscure websites and Facebook and friends, and I won’t say that every website is bogus, or wrong, but none of them have the newsgathering capability of the Big 3, and the “New York Times” has the most…but many won’t read it because they think it’s full of TDS or it’s not left enough. But you’ve got to start with the facts.
Screw the reviews. You know if you have to see this. And if you do…
There’s a starmaking machinery behind the popular song. Image is important. You’re never truly let inside.
Unless you are.
Those Rick Rubin interviews were fantastic, but Paul was playing a role, a Beatle. But who is this guy really?
I guess what impressed me most is when I heard Paul say he took the jitney in from the Hamptons to NYC, and then a bus uptown. That’s revelatory in a world where everybody wants to become so rich and famous that they can extricate themselves from the world of the hoi polloi.
But Paul McCartney is just another scouser from Liverpool. Albeit a very talented one. And rich too, but this film addresses the Allen Klein lawsuit/controversy… Never forget that Klein ended up owning all those early Rolling Stones albums. It wasn’t like today, they were making it up as they went along. The record companies were corporations, but the rest of the business was a free-for-all. With hustlers and shysters and… Paul had no idea where the millions went, for a while anyway.
Don’t confuse this film with the book, the latter was hagiography, this is shot from a distance. Morgan Neville has earned his rep, and he delivers here. McCartney is a micromanager who wants his hand in everything. But when you give up control is when you get greatness. And the first half of this film is truly great.
The second half? There’s nothing wrong with it, but the arc fizzles out. Wings tours America and then what?
Well, what happens is…family life.
The most poignant thing said in this film is how both Paul and Linda lost their mothers at a young age. And you can see here how Paul is needy. Or insecure. He needs Linda by his side constantly. Just like he needs Nancy today. It’s not so much that he needs a correction factor, someone to keep him in line, but he knows what’s going on outside, the fame and people’s reaction to it, isn’t really real.
Another fascinating thing said in this film is when Chrissie Hynde says the stars don’t really change. The penumbra does, but the people themselves… Joe Walsh nailed it, but people didn’t take it so seriously because of the humor in “Life’s Been Good.” But Joe’s still singing that song nearly fifty years later. The spotlight moves on. Even worse, the spotlight today is much narrower, much more focused, and the audience itself is made up of stars.
But not back then.
You may be mesmerized, positively gobsmacked by Swiftmania, but when you see Beatlemania in the beginning of this film… Whoa! I was there. And everybody else who was remembers. It was like nothing before and nothing since. The entire youth was fascinated by this group. Listened to the music, read everything they could, picked up instruments to play the songs and… The Beatles were good-looking and talented with great voices… You just don’t get that trifecta today.
That’s one thing that comes across right away, Paul is cheeky. Irreverent. And later in the film he says Liverpudlians hate the bosses. Which is kind of funny, because today everybody wants to be the boss. But the Beatles were not American, there was no dream, they were playing literally in a cavern. Such that when they did succeed, they maintained their values, which were a combination of curiosity and suspicion. They didn’t trust the system. Today Donald Trump accepts fake awards, back then John Lennon sent back his MBE.
So, the breakup is covered. But what is made clear here, in a way that it’s never been done previously, is that Paul was lost.
And he didn’t know where he wanted to go.
It wasn’t as simple as playing music, although that was an issue, but how exactly was he going to live?
You see images of the farm in Scotland… That was truly off the grid. He had to get away to find out who he was, to cogitate, he drank too much and then…
He made “McCartney.”
Now in truth not everything Paul has done since the Beatles is great, but that initial solo album is a masterpiece, if for no other reason than it was thrown-off, made in a vacuum, not worrying about the audience.
Today seemingly the only things people talk about are “Band on the Run” and the hits. But if young people really listened to “McCartney”…it’s human, and personal…if only today’s acts could replicate this magic.
And then there are the bands. Bottom line, McCartney was the leader. And Paul isn’t perfect, he can’t understand the musicians’ feelings, he’s got no idea where they’re at, how they’re being paid a meager salary. And when members quit just before the journey to Lagos, instead of being compassionate, he becomes indignant, saying if they want more money they should write the songs.
Yup, Paul is flawed. He doesn’t always do the right thing.
So, he puts Linda in the band, they always bring the family along, back in an era when no one did this. But Paul had to. That’s what he needs, that’s his bedrock, not lawyers and accountants, but his family. It roots him. He can count on them. And he’s certainly the center, but without them it’s not clear he can carry on.
Unlike the book, the film is not completely linear and not every moment is delineated, they don’t go through every album, however…
A highlight for me is when they’re playing “Big Barn Bed” live, before it comes out. I love that song, but…watching this movie you get the context, he’s talking about his barn, his life.
This happens all the time. The lyrics you thought were generic are actually specific, he’s talking about his life, mostly with Linda.
As for Linda… She can never be completely humanized, like Yoko she started off on the wrong foot.
And another thing you get from this film is these weren’t paragons of insight and education, Paul and Linda were making it up as they went along. Growing up.
And that’s bookends this film. Paul’s need to grow up. A lot of musicians never do. Paul is infatuated with music, he needs to make it, but it’s not enough to make and keep him happy. And what is life about anyway? I still don’t know. And I’m not sure Paul does either.
There are missteps. There’s the TV special with the singing and dancing that looks nearly tone-deaf…then again, one thing that comes clear in this movie is Paul did so much on a lark, without much aforethought. He was not a prisoner of his image. But without taking chances, you can never grow.
And you find out that Paul writes best when he’s away from his regular space. First in the toilet, then in Lagos… Inspiration is an enigma, but Paul has continued to push the envelope.
Now the truth is today Paul literally has the best band, and it’s been together for decades. But it’s clear, he’s the leader.
But you need backup musicians. Sure, Paul can make the records himself, but man it is lonely.
So, despite all the Beatle projects we’ve been exposed to for thirty-odd years… There’s still more to learn.
John was all about ripping himself open and testifying as to his hurts and beliefs. But Paul has played it closer to the vest. And you think you know these acts through their music, but in truth you don’t.
I learned more about Paul McCartney, got a better feel for the man in“Man on the Run,” than in any previous production.
Where he goes from here, I’m not sure. But Paul has survived. He has not succumbed to the dangers and missteps that have sidelined and even killed so many other star musicians. Even around him, like Jimmy McCulloch.
That’s the challenge. Continuing to live. Too many players are like athletes, trading on the past, the good old days. But Paul is not nostalgic, he’s constantly marching forward.
At this point, Paul McCartney could truly be the most recognizable guy on the planet. They used to say it was Muhammad Ali, but the Greatest is gone now. How do you cope?
That’s what this film is all about, the question of how you carry on.
If you’re just flipping the channels, looking for something to watch, don’t. If you hate Paul McCartney and his music, don’t. But if you still consider him a member of murderers’ row, someone who can always come back and hit the long ball, “Man on the Run” is a MUST-SEE!
By time the Beatles hit… Neil Sedaka was in the rearview mirror. And if you were of a certain age, and I mean young, you were clueless as to his success, which peaked in 1962, with “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.”
I’d never heard of him. But he was the featured performer at the Concord Hotel when we stayed there in February 1965.
That wasn’t the original plan. But our ski vacation in December had been rained out, and my parents didn’t want to take that risk again. I whined, but they told me there was a ski area there that some friend of theirs said was more than adequate, actually good.
That didn’t turn out to be the case. It was small, with two t-bars, and so flat that I could go down straight without turning, but this is not a story about skiing.
Now at this point the heyday of the Catskills is long gone. But there were full-service hotels, originally catering to Jews, with plentiful food and plentiful activities. You could order whatever you wanted in the dining room, the menu was just a starting point. And at night…
There was entertainment.
You sat at these long banquet tables, and the defining feature was these little mallets…
Well, imagine a ten inch stick with a wooden sphere the size of a golf ball at the end… This is what you used to applaud, rather than clap your hands, you banged the balls on the table. Really.
And my father couldn’t help talking about the appearance of Neil Sedaka, who he called “sebaka,” which he said was Russian for “dog.” Was this true? There was no internet back then to check.
And I must say I went to the show reluctantly. I didn’t need to see some sappy crooner. But what else was I going to do with the time.
But Neil was energetic, he sang his hits like they were just written yesterday. I can still see him on stage, and thereafter whenever I heard his songs on the radio I smiled, I felt a personal connection.
And there were two….
“I love, I love, I love my calendar girl”
But even better was “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” a veritable masterpiece of composition, with changes that endeared themselves to you.
It’s the bridge that seals the deal:
“They say that breaking up is hard to do
Now I know, I know that it’s true
Don’t say that this is the end
Instead of breaking up I wish that we were making up again”
It’s like he stopped the song, looked aside and had a personal conversation with the object of his affection. And the way he squeezes all those words into the last line, it was delicious.
Now what followed, the Beatles, the British Invasion, was very different from today. There was melody and changes. Not quite the puppy love of what had come before, then again, the Liverpool Lads’ first hit was “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
But the Beatles were revolutionary, and one of the reasons was that they wrote their own songs, unlike most of their immediate predecessors. Then again, unlike most of his contemporaries, Neil Sedaka wrote the songs he sang too, he was a cut above.
Now most of the pre-Beatle acts were wiped out. And it looked for a long while that Neil Sedaka was ancient history too. Carole King emerged from the background to become a piano player in James Taylor’s band, and then a superstar as a solo act with the best-selling “Tapestry.” But she was an anomaly, the Brill Building was in the rearview mirror.
And then…
Elton John is passionate about not only his music, but that of others. He’s a student of the game, he’s embedded in the scene, even as it changes.
Now Bruce Springsteen brought back Gary U.S. Bonds for a minute, who had a mild hit and then promptly returned to obscurity. But before that, Elton John signed Neil Sedaka to his Rocket Records and the result was two number one records. Neil was back! He was on all the music television shows of the era. He looked like he’d jetted right in from the fifties, he didn’t glam up, he might wear a sweater, but basically he appeared the same as he ever was.
But that was good enough, because he was great.
I mean if you can sing, write and play….
But then Neil bit the hand that fed him. He thought Elton needed to pay him more money. And the resulting rift led him to leave the label and ultimately have no more hits.
And Neil regretted this. But such is the music business, you’re almost always flying blind, you don’t know whether your decisions are the proper ones. And in truth, musicians have been ripped-off from time immemorial. And in Sedaka’s earlier era, this was truly prevalent. But let this be a lesson to you, to be willing to leave some money on the table. If you’re greedy, oftentimes you’re left out.
So Neil never had another hit, but… He’d made it again in the modern era, people knew who he was, he was never forgotten, he was part of the firmament. He wasn’t just a feature in the Dead Sea Scrolls of the pre-Beatle era, he’d earned his rep, people knew who he was and knew his hits and…
Of course he wrote “Love Will Keep Us Together,” a gigantic hit for Captain & Tennille in 1975 and…
The seventies were different from today. The power of music was paramount. We had AM hits and FM hits and the youth knew both.
Somewhere along the line, we lost the formula. Of course, music evolves, but melody, harmony and changes are forever. But too many acts are too hip for the room today.
But Neil could do all that, as well as croon with the best of them. Used to be you had to have a good voice to have a hit, to even get a chance to record, whereas today those with imperfect vocalizations believe they’re entitled to number one records, or at least riches.
Our standards have been lowered. Everybody used to try to make it in music back in the day, but very few felt they deserved success. And those who broke through were icons.
Now Neil Sedaka lived to 86. Not a bad run. And he leaves behind all those records, but his personality, his vivacity, those have been extinguished. Neil was always smiling, always upbeat, he always had his head in the game. Sure, he believed in himself, you have to to make it. The stars are different from you and me. But Neil was both a star and human, on stage but relatable. Like us but not like us.
And his humanity and his truth shined through.
I guess I was a fan, but when I talked to him, when we did that podcast, I was truly won over. Sure, he was proud of his story, of his achievements, but he had no airs, he truly wanted to connect, which is the essence of a great song, you feel it in your heart, it resonates.
More legendary musicmakers are going to die soon. Many are in their eighties. But to a great degree, Neil Sedaka was sui generis. He was not of the rock era, but before. But then he triumphed when the longhairs were dominating the airwaves.
Like I said, Neil had a pretty good run, but his death left me queasy… Not quite like a family member passing, but something akin to that. It was kind of personal. Maybe because he was so alive.
