Yesterday and Today

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Beatles ’79 pt6 Jan 16, 2022

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On October 9th, 1979, John Lennon and his son Sean celebrated their shared birthday in New York City's Tavern on the Green - an annual tradition at this point of friends and family gathering to wish father and son well. John's so-called "house husband" period was rounding the corner into a 4th consecutive year of relative musical inactivity, and the former Beatle seemed no worse the wear from his time out of the spotlight. The Lennons' domestic activities in the fall of 1979 included a donation to the NYPD for the purchase of bullet proof vests, and the preparation of a will in the event some ill-fated circumstances should befall them. While John and Yoko basked in the glow of family life, Paul McCartney and his band Wings were once again basking in the glow of an adoring audience - as the Wings 1979-1980 World Tour began on November 23rd in Liverpool's Royal Theater. The sizzling set which included deep cuts (Hot As Sun), brand new material (Coming Up) and here-to-fore unheard live Beatles classics (Got To Get You Into My Life) inaugurated the band's return to the stage following their epic WINGS OVER THE WORLD tour earlier in the decade. With Paul blazing up the stage, Ringo Starr beheld a different kind of blaze - in the form of a fire that tore through his Los Angeles home. It was said that some priceless Beatles artifacts were destroyed in the fire, though the overall damage was blessedly kept to a minimum. All this, while George Harrison continued demoing tracks slated for a new LP...

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Beatles ’79 pt5 Jan 03, 2022

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It's September 1979 and the former Beatle furthest from the public eye is John Lennon by a New York mile. With his wife and child by his side and the spotlight was nowhere in sight, John's compositions from throughout the so-called "house husband years" made for an impressive portfolio of scribbles, ballads, ideas and musings that were inspired by family, nature and his hot-and-cold feelings toward colleagues in the rock world. Songs such as Free as a Bird, Real Love and Serve Yourself rang from the walls of the Dakota... while songs from Lennon-McCartney past rang from London's "Buddy Holly Day 1979", hosted by the world's foremost Holly fan: Paul McCartney. Paul's live set for this evening consisted of tracks ranging from It's So Easy to Bo Diddley, and were an advance sneak-peak of a brand new WINGS tour on the horizon in the months and weeks to come...

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Beatles ’79 pt4 Dec 20, 2021

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With the launch of Wings' 7th studio album Back to the Egg, Paul, Linda, Denny and their new recruits hoped to recapture the successes of their preceding record releases - especially in light of Macca's newly inked deal with Columbia Records. But mixed reviews and the absence of the radio-hit Goodnight Tonight on the LP kept Back to the Egg from reaching the kinds of heights that the band had hoped for. Never one to back down from a perceived failure (and still receiving major awards around the world) Macca pushed even harder, releasing targeted singles from the LP and planning a new world tour that would (hopefully) echo the successes he and the previous iteration of Wings achieved in 1975 and 1976. With Paul planning big, George Harrison also found himself moving a mile-a-minute...around the racetrack in Donington. George's motor racing hobby was a welcome release from the stresses of the music industry, and Harrison indulged in the immersion into a new world apart from the self-destructive world of rock and roll...

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Beatles ’79 pt3 Dec 06, 2021

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It's spring of 1979 and a new album from WINGS is ready to launch! After the continued success of their previous effort London Town, a lineup change brought Paul McCartney's band of rock'n'roll comrades back to the proverbial "beginning" once more...or to coin a phrase, Back to the Egg. Macca's columbia debut was preceded by the crowd-pleasing toe-tapper Goodnight Tonight single, which Paul curiously omitted from the LP...much to the chagrin of the record-buying public. This remarkably contemporary-sounding new Wings album featured punk rock homages (Spin it On), MOR-ready ballads (Winter Rose/Love Awake) and vaguely new wave-inspired bouncy rockers (Getting Closer) -- all in an attempt to get a new iteration of the band off on the right foot. Well, even the best laid plans of former Beatles are subject to error, and Back to the Egg - while somewhat successful by the metrics of the day - proved to be a critical and commercial misfire from Paul & co. Regardless, Wings readied themselves for a tour to support the new sound, and eyed a bright future for their new post-shell life...

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Beatles ’79 pt2 Nov 22, 2021

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It's February of 1979 and George Harrison's follow-up LP to his 1976 effort Thirty Three & 1/3 is ready to drop! With a multi-year gestation period akin to that of the break between All Things Must Pass and Living In The Material World, this new, self-titled LP was yet another warmly-received return to form for George. Light-hearted singles fare such as Blow Away and If You Believe sat neatly next to the beautiful contemplation of a Your Love is Forever, joined by the blasts from Beatles past such as the resurrected White Album cut Not Guilty. 70's producer dujour Russ Titelman alongside co-producer George brought a cohesion to this collection not seen on the Dark Horse's solo work for some time, helping George Harrison to go top 40 around the world and peaking at a respectable #12 in the US. While new Harri-songs were burning up the radio dials, Paul McCartney was not about to be outdone. The new hit Wings single Goodnight Tonight b/w Daytime Nighttime Suffering was the opening salvo of a new WINGS formation, and a hint of things to come later in the year...

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Beatles ’79 pt1 Nov 08, 2021

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It's 1979! The world of music had evolved considerably since the demise of the fab four as a unified entity nearly a decade prior -- with punk rock, pub rock, disco and new wave bringing with them a parade of new artists making new sounds for a new generation. Which is not to say that Beatle music was no longer relevant, but amongst each former Beatle was a sliding scale of solicitude as to whether or not following current musical trends was worth their respective while. McCartney was turning the corner on the decade with some of the biggest chart-topping successes ever seen in popular music, while the yin to his yang enjoyed something more akin to retirement. John Lennon's so-called "house husband years" were indeed in full swing, and he began 1979 with family time, farm animal purchases, and travels abroad. George Harrison, too, indulged his non-music interests in the early days of the year, flying to Rio to witness the Gran Prix and rub shoulders with the major players in his increasingly prevalent passion: auto racing. But unlike John, George was far from abandoning the world of music -- and Harrison spent some time in early February with the BBC and (of all people) Michael Jackson discussing the new sounds of the day, his Beatle past, and his new self-titled album about to drop...

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Beatles ’78 pt5 Oct 25, 2021

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1978 was a relative year of calm in the world of the former Beatles, with its own unique mix of musical and visual appearances (to varying degrees of success and reach) and the onset of familial stability in some, but not all cases (individual former Beatle mileage may vary). On August 1st, 1978, George and Olivia welcomed into the world their brand new baby boy, Dhani - and with him a wave of peace, love and inspiration for Harrison. John and Yoko too found solace in the warmth of family life, and in the fall announced a project that would document their journey in stage-musical form - The Ballad Of John and Yoko. Such a project would have been welcome to Lennon's fans, who were in their third consecutive year of John's self-proclaimed "house-husband period" - which of course offered not a single official release of new material beyond the odd contribution here or there. The critical and commercial failure of Ringo's Bad Boy LP ushered in an uncharacteristic era of quiet from Starr - whose hopes of reclaiming a hold on the top 10 dwindled more with each passing release. Paul McCartney was in no such slump, recording tracks for a new LP with his updated Wings line-up... and even assembling a super-group of rock's biggest stars for an orchestral-style rock and roll recording Macca dubbed "Rockestra". All this, and the release of a feature film centered around the Sgt.Pepper concept, as 1978 draws to a close...

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Beatles ’78 pt4 Oct 10, 2021

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As Spring to turned to Summer in 1978, Paul McCartney was back in the business of rebuilding a Wings lineup -- a process all-too-familiar to the Maccas as a matter of course every few years since the band's inception. Jimmy McCulloch and Joe English left big shoes to fill - especially after having charmed the globe during the 1976 WINGS OVER THE WORLD tour...but fill those shoes the Maccas did, with the addition of scorching lead guitarist Lawrence Juber, and set-your-clock-to-it drumming courtesy of Steve Holly. Like birds flocking south for the winter, Paul, Linda, Denny, Lawrence and Steve found themselves shortly thereafter in the studio cutting tracks for yet another new Wings LP - while the vinyl was still cooling on the band's successful 1978 LP offering London Town. With Wings in the studio, Ringo Starr was busy making a last-ditch attempt to salvage the disastrous chart showing of his own latest LP Bad Boy, with a flurry of promotional activity that ultimately amounted to little. As Ringo and Paul worked away, George and John were in the midst of respective trips around the world - Harrison to Spain and Lennon to Japan...

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Beatles ’78 pt3 Sep 26, 2021

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It's April, 1978, and Ringo Starr has a new album, a new TV special, and a new live performance in the works. First up the release of Starr's 7th post-Beatle LP, Bad Boy - a tighter, warmer departure from the previous year's effort Ringo The 4th. With highlight cuts like Hard Times, Heart On My Sleeve and Tonight, Ringo and producer (and longtime collaborator) Vini Poncia hoped to recapture the lightning in a bottle that was Ringo's self-titled 1973 effort -- but once again success proved elusive. Unlike former bandmate McCartney, whose solo work only grew in popularity since the demise of the fab four, Ringo's strong start was looking like diminishing returns by the later half of the 70's, and frustration was setting in. Ringo's self-titled TV special, released in conjunction with the Bad Boy album, was again a fun, fairly tight affair featuring co-stars such as the freshly white-hot Hollywood starlet Carrie Fischer. But like the album, Ringo's TV special came up short. Perhaps the biggest indicator of things to come from the entire project was a live concert performance filmed for the TV special - an "all star" cast if you will...

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Beatles ’78 pt2 Sep 13, 2021

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It's March of 1978, and big expectations for a follow-up to Wings' ultra-successful Wings At The Speed of Sound record are mounting. Though it had been over a year since their ultra-successful WINGS OVER THE WORLD tour, audiences poured into stores in record numbers for a new single from Paul & company -- but would their LP follow suit? The answer came in the form of a resounding "yes", and the sixth album from the little (huge) band that could -- London Town -- arrived with both critical and commercial success. Though just shy of the #1 spot in the US, this softer, more relaxed collection was packed with the pastoral likes of I'm Carrying, Deliver Your Children, Girlfriend and more -- securing the McCartney domination of the mid-70s with tuneful flair. With Paul sitting pretty, former bandmate Ringo Starr worked away on his own new album (and accompanying TV special) which would feature an all-star cast and the former Beatle's first solo performance in front of a live audience...ever. Would the original "bad boy" come out on top? Stay tuned for part three of 1978 to find out...

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