If Paul McCartney were playing "Mamunia" on his clean-up tour I’d be
interested in going.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, he’s playing for graying baby boomers who remember the Beatles but probably don’t know that "Helen Wheels" was stripped into "Band On The Run" AFTER the fact, AFTER the album was all done.\u00c2\u00a0 The bands used to
play for US, the fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Now they play for Fidelity.\u00c2\u00a0 And the people who use such
a product.<\/p>\n
By time "Band On The Run" was released I was done.<\/p>\n
Oh, let me tell you, "Big Barn Bed", from the previous record, "Red Rose
Speedway", KILLED ME!\u00c2\u00a0 But it was counterbalanced by the execrable "My Love".\u00c2\u00a0
Actually, the closing medley, with "Power Cut", it’s pretty damn good.\u00c2\u00a0 But I
didn’t hear it until I purchased the album, AFTER I bought "Band On The Run".<\/p>\n
In retrospect, "McCartney" is a classic.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s got a feel, an intimacy.\u00c2\u00a0 If
only Paul would stop mugging and record something like "Every Night" today.\u00c2\u00a0
But he’s so busy being PAUL McCARTNEY that he can’t.\u00c2\u00a0 Back then, he was trying
to retreat from his fame.\u00c2\u00a0 Once you’re playing to your fame, you’re done.<\/p>\n
"Ram" is not a bad follow-up, reconsidered three decades later.\u00c2\u00a0 But we were
used to a higher quality from the Beatles.\u00c2\u00a0 The band NEVER released a turkey.\u00c2\u00a0
And although "Ram" wasn’t a turkey, it wasn’t necessary.\u00c2\u00a0 It was almost
irrelevant.\u00c2\u00a0 It was dwarfed by George’s "All Things Must Pass".<\/p>\n
And then came "Wild Life".\u00c2\u00a0 I still find it unlistenable today.<\/p>\n
So no one expected McCartney to turn the whole thing around, to get BETTER!\u00c2\u00a0
I didn’t buy "Band On The Run" the day it came out.\u00c2\u00a0 It was only after reading
the fantastic reviews that I took the plunge.\u00c2\u00a0 I played that album at full
volume in my dorm room in Starr Hall all January, as I didn’t write my thesis.<\/p>\n
Eventually I got my paper done.\u00c2\u00a0 And graduated.\u00c2\u00a0 And recorded twenty six
cassettes to travel out west in my brand new BMW 2002.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d still drive that car
if I had it today.\u00c2\u00a0 If it hadn’t been totaled at a light by a drunk driver on
St. Patrick’s Day ten years later.\u00c2\u00a0 THAT was a car.\u00c2\u00a0 All performance and no fr
ills.<\/p>\n
And driving cross-country, I heard my recording of "Band On The Run" quite a
bit.\u00c2\u00a0 And when the season at Snowbird was done, I trooped out to Mammoth
Mountain in California.\u00c2\u00a0 To spend the month of May tearing up the ski area with the
world’s best freestyle skiers.\u00c2\u00a0 And there I had an adventure.\u00c2\u00a0 You get old
enough and these experiences stand out in stark relief.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, they mean a lot to
you when they happen, but you don’t know yet that they’re so FEW and FAR
between.\u00c2\u00a0 You wait for so long for a woman to be into you.\u00c2\u00a0 And this one was hot to
boot!\u00c2\u00a0 I remember driving around town with her the night before I left,
listening to "Band On The Run".<\/p>\n
Oh, I went back to Mammoth to pursue her, but the following day, June 1st, I
drove through the California desert to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
I went back to Utah the next year.<\/p>\n
But then I came back to L.A. for good.<\/p>\n
I’ve got a season’s pass to Mammoth.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d go more if it wasn’t so far.\u00c2\u00a0 But,
if this year is as good as last, I’m ready.\u00c2\u00a0 All we need is snow.<\/p>\n
The legend is true.\u00c2\u00a0 It almost never rains in Southern California.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s
sunny almost every day.\u00c2\u00a0 But, then the skies part, the wetness comes down, it
snows in the mountains, and you feel good.<\/p>\n
You wait for it.\u00c2\u00a0 The first rain of the season.<\/p>\n
I was sitting here listening to my iPod.\u00c2\u00a0 Answering e-mail.\u00c2\u00a0 But then this
guy wanted me to listen to tracks on his MySpace site.\u00c2\u00a0 I removed my headphones,
dialed in the page, turned up the volume, and all I heard was this pecking.\u00c2\u00a0
A rat-a-tat-tat.\u00c2\u00a0 I hoped it was the music, because this is the same sound my
water heater makes, when it’s fired up.\u00c2\u00a0 Or dying.\u00c2\u00a0 And since I had used no
hot water in the past twelve hours or so, I anticipated a disaster.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, the
music definitely WASN’T coming from my computer speakers.<\/p>\n
I jumped up.\u00c2\u00a0 Went into the kitchen, where the water heater resides.\u00c2\u00a0 And
then I realized the sound I was hearing was raindrops hitting the galvanized air
vent in the ceiling.<\/p>\n
There was a hint of elation.\u00c2\u00a0 My stomach back-flipped.\u00c2\u00a0 Snow was COMING!<\/p>\n
I opened the front door.\u00c2\u00a0 Reached out from under the porch.\u00c2\u00a0 And I felt it.\u00c2\u00a0
The rain.<\/p>\n
And I started singing "Mamunia".\u00c2\u00a0 The opening track on side two of "Band On
The Run".<\/p>\n
So the next time you see L.A. rain clouds <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If Paul McCartney were playing "Mamunia" on his clean-up tour I’d be interested in going.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, he’s playing for graying baby boomers who remember the Beatles but probably don’t know that "Helen Wheels" was stripped into "Band On The Run" AFTER the fact, AFTER the album was all done.\u00c2\u00a0 The bands used to play for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s96vPs-mamunia","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Don’t complain, it rains for you and me<\/em><\/p>\n