Friday, May 04, 2012

So Brilliant!

We're working on Paul songs for our McCartney night coming up on May 19.  What I really like about doing these Rock Icon shows (we've done Dylan, Lennon and Neil Young previously), is you get to delve into a catalog of songs and make discoveries.

For some reason I was really hesitant to do a McCartney night, he's so ubiquitous, it almost seemed redundant, but some of his songs are just so amazing.  He's certainly the most musically sophisticated of the group.  And his melodic sense is stunning.


Sometimes he's a little too sweet for my tastes.  But then again the man can rock out.  And his collaboration with Lennon was just one of the most thrilling and satisfying musical partnerships in the history of music.


I'm learning how to play "Blackbird," a solo acoustic song.  It's just a beautiful gem of a song. I think it's one the Lovely Carla will sing. Learning the tune on guitar is a challenge and a pleasure.  Not so much technically difficult, but it's stunning how he uses the whole fret-board with unique chord shapes. How did he come up such an approach? McCartney makes it all seems so effortless. So beautiful. So brilliant...




And we're thinking of doing this one with the Telepaths. I love this video. You know with all that crazy screaming, and an under-powered P.A. that they can barely hear themselves. It had to be a real challenge. And hell, they give it their all. Exhilarating!