A Smorgaspost

Hello! The month of August always seems to fly by, doesn’t it? Before I knew it, it was August 20th and I hadn’t blogged since the first day of the month… Cue the guilt. But here I am! Today I figured I’d talk about a few things, Beatley and not, that have been going on in my life and in the world recently.

First, I was very fortunate to see one of my current favorite musicians, Gavin DeGraw, in concert last week with my friend. I’d been looking forward to this for months, and he did not disappoint in the slightest! Gavin was charismatic, funny, and charming, and he sounded amazing! If there’s anyone out there today who will never need autotune, it’s him. He is also a fantastic piano player, and if there’s anyone even close to a modern “piano man” like Elton John or Billy Joel, it’s also him. I love him for constantly restoring my faith in today’s popular music, and I sincerely hope I get to see him live again soon.

Here are a couple of pictures I took at the concert:

We were pretty close to the stage!

I zoomed in, we weren’t actually right in front of him, but it was still really exciting!

The two acts who performed first, Andrew McMahon and Matt Nathanson, were also fantastic. I didn’t know any songs by either of them before the concert, but they are now officially on my musical radar!

And now, for something completely different…
Apparently, Paul McCartney and Kanye West are collaborating. I’m not really sure what to make of this. On one hand, Paul has probably done just about everything on his musical bucket list, so why not collab with Kanye? On the other hand, if this means Paul will be rapping… Well, actually, I’d love to hear that. Who am I kidding? But I hope whatever they come up with will be skewed more towards Paul’s musical senses than Kanye’s.

To quote Forrest Gump, “And that’s all I have to say about that.” 🙂

Paul also made news recently for performing the last-ever gig at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, CA. I was reading reviews of the concert recently, and while it sounded like an amazing concert, the highway traffic getting there was so bad that thousands of people didn’t even get to the stadium in time for the concert.

If that were me, I would have gotten out of the car and walked. As I’ve said, for Paul, it’s always worth it. If I had to walk from New York to California with the promise of seeing Paul again, I probably would. Just give me a few weeks… 🙂

Finally, the Emmys are coming up, and remember that Beatles special from way back in February? Well, it’s nominated for… Something technical sounding in the TV special category. I think it’s also nominated for writing for a TV special. Anyway, I’m hoping some Beatle-affiliated people will be there solely for this reason. If this special doesn’t win anything, I’ll have to be content hoping that The Big Bang Theory, The Tonight Show, Sherlock, and The Normal Heart (the only other programs nominated that I really care about) win everything. Should be an exciting evening!

Anyway, school unfortunately starts soon for me… 😦 I’m a senior in high school this year. Yikes. Time really does fly. I was a mere sophomore when I started this blog! Though I’m sure it will be a busy year, I promise to continue blogging as often as possible and keep you updated on all things Beatles. After all, if there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that I am never too busy to listen to the Beatles!

I’m planning on posting a sequel to the “Random songs I’ve been obsessed with recently” post I did a while ago, so be on the lookout for that in the near future. Aside from that, have a fab rest of the week/weekend/summer/year! (depending on how often you read this…)

The news today, oh boy, in Beatleland

This picture describes me so well!

For today, I thought I’d do a relatively quick post highlighting some important things going on across the Beatleverse. First, I just saw this article today, and it got me very excited! A new feature-length documentary about the Beatles! There can never be too many of those! Hopefully this one, unlike The Beatles: The Lost Concert, will actually make it to theaters without being pulled due to copyright issues…
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ron-howard-directing-new-beatles-doc-focusing-on-bands-early-years-20140716
As much as I already know about the Beatles’ existence, there’s nothing quite like the thrill of seeing the same magical story told over and over again. It’s almost like seeing a favorite musical continually revived year after year.

I also watched a fantastic program about the Beatles on CNN last week entitled, “The Sixties: The British Invasion”. It was the sixth part in a ten-part series about the most important and revolutionary events of the sixties. As you might have guessed, this episode focused on the arrival of the Beatles in America and the impact of the entire British invasion on American life. I will admit that I saw a VERY similar program on PBS a while back, but that didn’t make this one any less interesting. I always enjoy hearing about how groundbreaking, innovative, and fab the Beatles and their 60s counterparts were back in the day. 🙂

In other news, Paul has begun touring again after a health scare in May. Thank goodness he is better, and judging from a video of a recent concert, he appears to be in his usual top form. I know this may sound greedy considering that I’ve already seen Paul in concert once, but I would give just about anything to see him again. Those fireworks during Live and Let Die were even better than advertised!

This is a bit unrelated, but thanks to tangerinetrees99, I found this incredible list of symptoms of Beatlemaniacism, which I will share with you. I think at least 90 of these apply to me. And yes, I did bother to read the entire list. That’s what any true Beatlemaniac would do!
http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/fvKWJLM/101-Ways-to-Know-Youre-Too-Obsessed-With-the-Beatles

There are no particularly Beatley events coming up in the very near future for me, but if anything comes up, I will definitely blog about it. I hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful summer/winter, depending on what side of the world you’re on. 🙂

Paul McCartney and Jimmy Fallon: A Fab Duo

So much cuteness in one photo!!!

So I’ve been kind of obsessed with Jimmy Fallon recently since he made his debut on The Tonight Show a few weeks ago. I think he’s hilarious and one of the most creative and entertaining comedians out there today. One thing, among many, that I love about him, is that he is known for his spot-on musical impersonations of people like Neil Young, Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and others.

He is also a huge fan of the Beatles and Paul McCartney! In fact, my mom actually spotted him at the Paul McCartney concert last June, and I think he appeared on the screen next to the stage once or twice. Whenever he interviews Paul on his show, he gets really excited and giggly, which I think is both adorable and the mark of a true super fan. Anyway, today I’ve decided to post a few videos of Jimmy and Paul, because they’re two wonderful people who are just hysterical together!

This video is priceless for so many reasons! Paul head-butting Jimmy, Paul attempting an American accent and sounding more like a British tourist with an acquired Texan accent, Paul saying “Honey Boo Boo” over and over again… I’m so thankful this exists.

A classic moment on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. This version of Yesterday might be my favorite. 🙂
Also, I love when Jimmy harmonizes on the last part of the song. He actually has quite a nice voice.

This might be the most heartfelt version of Here Today I’ve come across. It brings tears to my eyes whenever I watch it because it’s so powerful and bare. Also, when Jimmy tells Paul, “I love you,” at 3:30 in the video, I think I laughed and cried at the same time. If I was hosting a talk show and Paul was a guest, I would also profess my love for him on the air.

Hearing Paul using words like “selfie” and “photobomb” that mostly people under 20 say just makes my day. He truly is the coolest person in the world. And the picture they show at 0:35 is one of my absolute favorite Beatle pictures!

All right, I think that’s all for now. I will try to do a post tomorrow about my favorite covers of Beatles songs, so be on the lookout!

“Rockshow” = essential viewing for any Paul McCartney fan

A lovely pic of Paul and Linda singing together!

So it’s snowing here in NY! School was dismissed early today (hooray!) and I had a few extra hours on my hands, and what do you suppose I decided to do? Well, after doing some homework, I decided to sit down and watch Rockshow, the 3 hour concert documentary made of Paul McCartney and Wings’ 1976 tour of North America. I honestly can’t imagine a better way to spend a snowy afternoon.

This was a movie that as a major Beatles and Paul fan, I’d been wanting to watch for a long time, and I was certainly not disappointed! For those expecting a movie with lots of behind-the-scenes footage of the band, this has none of that. It’s just the concert, from beginning to end, but really, shouldn’t that be enough? It’s Paul, for crying out loud. He’s (arguably) the single most entertaining person who has ever lived!

Watching this reminded me of the absolute joy I felt watching Paul onstage live last June, and I loved watching him perform many of the same songs in this movie, like “Lady Madonna” and “Blackbird,” as well as a bunch of Wings songs, that he did when I saw him. Paul truly is a natural showman, definitely the best out of the four Beatles, and his love for music shines through in his performing.

I’d also like to add that Paul just looks amazing in this movie. From the mullet which only he can pull off, to the sparkly jacket and pink tie, to the odd but charming shiny pants, to his iconic voice, he is a bonafide rock star in every sense of the word.

So, if you’re wondering what all of this fuss is about, here are a couple of awesome clips from the movie! The first one is of a song not actually written by Paul, but by other Wings member Denny Laine! What I did not realize before watching this movie is that Denny actually has a great voice, though he is a little kooky. And I am obsessed with this version of the song. It’s by far the best version I’ve heard.

This song, “Bluebird,” is I think one of Paul’s most underrated solo songs. It’s really quite lovely, and this version is wonderful. Even after all of the screaming and high-octane rock numbers, Paul always knows how to scale it back vocally for a song like this. That’s why he’s so great!

The reason that I’m including this next song, “Let ‘Em In,” is purely because at 1:03 in the video, Paul clearly says, “Do me a FLAVOR” instead of the actual lyric, “Do me a FAVOR”! I laughed when I heard that. 🙂
This song seems pretty easy to learn on the piano, so I may attempt it in the future. I’ll let you all know how that turns out…

Okay, one more video. This one is of “Jet,” one of my absolute favorite Paul songs, and this is what I mean when I’m describing his voice during this concert. Especially during this song, he just sounds like the dictionary definition of a rock star.

That’s all for now! I do have an idea for another post, but that may have to wait until tomorrow. Stay fab everyone!

What’s happening in Paul McCartney/Elton John Land

So, this past week there has been a lot going on with two of my favorite musicians, Paul McCartney and Elton John! First, both of them performed at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas last weekend, and while I was not in attendance, I loved watching both of them perform via a live online stream! They were fantastic as always and performed many awesome songs, two of which I will share with you in this post!
Here’s Elton John doing a rousing rendition of “Tiny Dancer” on Day 1 of the festival:

And here’s Paul McCartney performing a great song, “Save Us”, off of his new album on Day 2! I cannot wait for this album to come out in October!

I loved watching the Emmys this past Sunday, because not only did my favorite actor, Jim Parsons, take home another award, but Elton John also performed! He did a “tribute” to Liberace, which was nice except that it seemed more like a plug for his new single, “Home Again”, than a tribute to a fallen musical legend. Oh well, he was great anyway and I love the song!

So after that, Paul made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Monday night, giving a hilarious interview and performing a free concert on Hollywood Blvd for 10,000 lucky fans! I watched that as well, and Paul amazed me with his unbelievable talent as he always does. Here’s Paul performing his new single, “New,” from that concert!

I also enjoyed watching Elton John’s appearance on the Ellen show on Wednesday. Here’s a funny clip of him talking to Ellen about Miley Cyrus’s controversial performance at the VMAs this year. He is just hilarious!

So I didn’t think this week could get any better, but then it did! I had been not-so-subtly dropping hints to my family that I really wanted to get tickets to one of Elton John’s upcoming concerts at Madison Square Garden in December. Well, just as I was writing down instructions to my parents about how to get the online presale tickets, my dad informed me that via the Chase Pre-Presale, they had already gotten two tickets to his concert on December 3rd!! That’s right folks, I’m going to an Elton John concert!! I’m so excited!! Thanks mom and dad! 🙂

I honestly can’t believe that we’ve been able to obtain tickets to see not one, but TWO Sirs in one year! What incredible luck! In honor of this amazing situation, I’m planning on posting my top 10 favorite Elton John songs tomorrow!
Have a great weekend!