Tag Archives: paul mccartney

Pop Culture Reflection: The Beatles 50th Anniversary CBS Special

12 Feb
sub

My illustration tribute to The Beatles

Great moments took place during Sunday night’s CBS special for The Beatles 50th anniversary of their live appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Their performance on February 9th, 1964 changed America or known in popular culture as what started Beatlemania.

Surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr sat together during the show as the band’s history and bios got covered. The night featured big name artists paying tribute like Dave Grohl, Stevie Wonder, Katy Perry, Johnny Depp, Sean Penn and many more.

Members of John Lennon and George Harrison’s family were there. Harrison’s widow Olivia was in the audience and Sean Lennon sported a shaggy spit in’ image look of his father while he stood next to his mother Yoko Ono.

A few notable artists that I felt delivered great performances of The Beatles classics were Maroon 5 who did a stellar cover of All my Loving as well as Alicia Keys and John Legend who delivered a nice rendition of Let it Be.

I thought it was cool that while artists were performing their tribute’s the camera would turn to McCartney and Starr whose faces seemed so honored as they clapped along and mouthed the words to their songs.

McCartney performed I Saw Her Standing There which is one of my favorite songs and I also enjoyed when Ringo played Boys and of course hearing him do Yellow Submarine was awesome.

The closing part of the night was the best when they performed together again doing With A Little Help From My Friends and then Ringo on drums for Hey Jude. Their whole performance gave me goosebumps.

The Beatles are my best friend’s favorite band and they are a classic iconic band that hold a special place in my heart too.  We each differ in who our favorite Beatle is and which album is our favorite but their brilliance as a band is never an argument.

For the record, Ringo is my favorite Beatle while Lennon is my best friends favorite. I also believe her favorite album is The White Album while mine is Magical Mystery Tour.

I found a link from The Beatles You Tube channel showing some of the The Ed Sullivan performance, enjoy.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Gem of the Week: Grammy Performance Highlights

29 Jan
Print

Grammy Love

Sunday nights 56th annual Grammy performance line- up included my favorite legends of rock from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to Metallica.

I felt this article written by David Bauder from the Huffington Post summed up the Grammys vibe best stating:

 “What makes music special is its seeming randomness, of magic moments coming from where you’d least expect them. Sunday night’s Grammy Awards proved that. In a room filled with music history and industry powerhouses, Lorde and Daft Punk took major awards. And there were other moments, too — some moving, some boring, some baffling, some just plain fun.”

I was looking forward to the finale rock performance with Nine Inch Nails (NIN), Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham and Queens of the Stone Age with Dave Grohl. I thought it was an interesting grunge combo and it was a great closing performance that was rudely cut short due to lack of time. That was unfortunate and NIN frontman Trent Reznor tweeted his frustration against the incident by cursing out the Grammys, I can’t say I blame him for his anger.

I enjoyed seeing respected artists from my 80s and 90s era in music and pop culture  like actor Neil Patrick Harris and 80s pop queen Cyndi Lauper presenting. My favorite presenter for the night was Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman Jared Leto who touched on the loss of rock legend Lou Reed before introducing Metallica.

While I liked Metallica’s performence overall, I felt the vocal sound quality was disappointing. The band was playing their hit One along with classical pianist Lang Lang. The chaotic piano with lead guitarist Kirk Hammett’s solo was cool but I could barely hear frontman James Hetfield’s vocals.

Some performances that deserve an honorable mention for being awesome were country music’s legendary trio Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard along with Blake Shelton doing Highway and other hits. Miranda Lambert and Greenday frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s performance of The Everly Brothers song, When Will I be Loved was a nice tribute to the late Phil Everly.

My main reason for tuning into the Grammys this year was to see Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reunited on stage together. While It would have been cool if they did a Beatles song, their performance of McCartney’s song Queenie Eye was still awesome.

I am also looking forward to the Beatles tribute set to air February 9th on CBS for the 50th anniversary of their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

For the record I love Ringo Starr and it was cool to see him on drums with McCartney; not to mention he looks great for 73 years old!

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,