Once upon I time, I thought of an alternative blog post
idea. I would write celebrities and
publish my letters to them online and hopefully their responses as well. However, I realized there are only two
celebrities I wanted to write to. One
was the late G.O.A.T comedian Robin Williams to see what he thought of the
entire astronomical society agreeing with Mork from Ork’s assessment that Pluto
was indeed “a Mickey Mouse planet” when they downgraded Pluto from solar system
world you had to include in your mnemonic phrases to a Kuiper Belt dwarf planet-esque
object. The other I am hoping to still
reach is the legendary pop rock star Sir Paul McCartney.
Now, I know there are some still out there who may be
wondering who Sir Paul McCartney is although I’m glad Kayne West could
introduce him to Gen Z (like Paul McCartney needs it?).[i] But for those of you who have never ever
ever ever ever ever ever head of a band called “The Beatles” in the past 60
years (maybe you were raised on some isolated mountaintop with no radio or TV
whatsoever?) Paul McCartney was one of the
“Fab 4”. The Beatles really meant it
when the told Beethoven to roll over and tell Tchaikovsky the news that The
Beatles were the ones everyone was going to listen to 200 years from now
especially after The Beatles began to blend those symphonic orchestrations into
rock’n’roll music along with those great American blues backbeat rhythms.
My fan letter would begin as all letters with the greeting-
Dear Sir McCartney,
Then a quick intro paragraph explaining who I am-
“I know I am one of about a billion or more Beatles fans
on the planet that have adored you for sixty years or more and it’s rare for me
to find anyone who actively dislikes “The Beatles” .
OK for the record I know my husband does not like the
Beatles but let’s just say we agree to disagree about the awesomeness of the
Beatles.
“I myself was
born two years after The Beatles broke up but I discovered your music through
an old Beatles Saturday morning cartoon[ii]
that reran on my local UHF station I watched while growing up. I know at the time it was made you were too
busy touring the world to provide your voice to your cartoony avatar. Yet I was grateful the show did have the
wisdom to make sure the cartoony Fab Four were lip synched to the music being
produced by the actual Fab Four since, in hindsight, that was probably the best
part of the entire cartoon. If you have never watched it, think of it as ‘A
Hard Day’s Night’ but for children with the same premise playing out for 39
episodes. The music was infectious, fun,
delightful and influenced my taste in music to the point when I got older, I
never could get into the teen boy bands my friends were into in the 1980’s
(Menudo, New Kids on the Block) because all of them seemed like pale imitators
of the original boy band which you were a part of. Sure, they were cute but talentless hacks
compared to yours and John’s musical genius.
And then I go on to argue why the latest and last Beatles
song, (just released on November 2nd, 2023), is the greatest Beatles
song of all time.
Wait, the Beatles have a new song?
Yes, back in 1994[iii]
when John Lennon was being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a
solo artist his widow Yoko Ono gave Paul McCartney these cassette tapes that
had songs from John he recorded prior to his tragic death on December 8th,
1980. Paul, in turn, got the Beatles
back together to turn these cassette recordings into new Beatles songs. The first one “Free as a Bird” released on
the Beatles’ Anthology album in 1995 was kind of meh, mumbly and just OK; but
not the kind of song that would upend the Beatles legacy. The next song “Real Love” released on the
Beatles Anthology 2 album in 1996 was slightly better but not necessarily earth
shattering. The last song Yoko gave Paul of John “Now and
Then” was supposed to come out on the Beatles Anthology 3 album but there was a
problem. The piano John used to play
the song with as he was composing it was louder than John’s voice. Back in the 1990’s there was no way to get
John’s voice to be louder than his piano banging. With John no longer alive to re-record the
song Paul just had to put the recording on a shelf.
Until filmmaker Peter Jackson, director of the “Lord of the
Rings” trilogy decided to turn the Beatles final film-The documentary “Let it
Be” that chronicled the band’s tension and why they were breaking up, into a miniseries
for Disney + called “Get Back”. Now
anyone who has parodied the Beatles over the years (other than going with the
mop-top haircut) knows the band members are famous for their Liverpudlian
accents that is more mumble than refined Shakespearian queen’s (or should I say
king’s) English. So, like any good
documentarian the filmmakers who filmed The Beatles in 1968-69 attempting to
make a new Beatles album had hundreds of hours of film left on the cutting room
floor probably because no one could understand what John, Paul, George and
Ringo were saying to each other. Peter
Jackson developed new technology to get those conversations to be crips and
clear and Paul asked if Peter Jackson could use the technology to try and bring
John’s voice to life from the cassette tape Yoko had given him. And if worked!
“I have been a Beatles fan all my life and I want to
thank you for releasing “Now and Then” to the world. “Now and Then” I would have to say is the
greatest Beatle song of all time and that I know is saying a lot. You released the song on November 2nd,
2023. November 2nd is as you
may or may recall from your Catholic school upbringing is the feast of All
Souls Day where Catholics especially remember those who have departed from us
in this lifetime and may be residing in Purgatory. And, as soon as I heard John’s opening lyrics
of -
‘I know it’s true,
It’s all because of you,
And if I make it through
It’s all because of you.’
I began to envision John singing this song from
Purgatory.”
For those readers of mine who aren’t Catholic or are
Catholic but whose local church has de-emphasized the teaching of Purgatory,
Purgatory is a place where souls go to atone for the sins they couldn’t quite
atone for while they were alive. Yes,
God forgives sins hence us getting into Heaven because of the sacrament of
Baptism which takes away sins. The
sacrament of Reconciliation also takes away those sins, but you still have to
make up for the sins in some way.
Think of it this way. A group of
kids begin to play a pickup baseball game in the middle of a cul-de-sac because
the kids’ individual yards are too small to have a baseball diamond. One kid smacks a home run right through a
neighbor’s closed window breaking it.
The owner of the home with the broken window can easily forgive the kids
because they recognize they are kids not adults and the kids don’t know any
better. While the owner of the broken
window understands these things happen, there is still the matter of how to
mend the broken window which means maybe the future Babe Ruth may have to give
part or all their weekly allowance to the homeowner until the window repairs
are paid for. This is where Purgatory
comes in because Catholics believe those, we have wronged in this world we need
to make it up to even if it means suffering for awhile in the next.
So, as I explained to Sir Paul, John Lennon was good enough
of a man (and probably baptized as a baby) to make it into Heaven. However, considering John Lennon’s #1 hit
“Imagine” denies the reality of the Heavenly hereafter and encourages others to
do so, he somehow or other has to make it up to the entire Heavenly hosts hence
time in Purgatory. And because John may have been singing in Purgatory, I began
to explain why this particular Beatles song is so relevant now.
“Moreover, I think there are a lot more of us thinking
about those we may have lost recently.
This song brings beautiful bittersweet tears of joy as we remember
them. The Covid pandemic has taken
nearly 7 million lives thus far[iv]
globally and with new wars going on taking more lives and an increase in
violence worldwide, many of us are experiencing the loss of a loved one at this
time. Even if someone is lucky enough to
have all your loved ones still, there’s an ongoing loss of the world we once
knew pre-pandemic. You might say “Now
and Then” was John’s response to your “Yesterday” that had a similar beautiful
melancholy tone. It, like “Yesterday”
will become timeless but unlike “Yesterday” you have made it richer and more symphonic
sounding than your simple “Yesterday”.
This symphonic orchestration is what elevates it to being the greatest
Beatle song of all time. So, as soon as
one does lose someone they love, and does think of them every “Now and Then”
they’ll also have this song playing in the back of their minds as well.
I am also hoping that you are getting all the royalty
rights from this song.”
Ah yes for those of
you not Beatles fans allow me to give a brief Beatles history lesson. When the Beatles began to get big in 1963,
they sought out a partnership with a music publisher for the rights to their
songs. They formed a partnership with Dick
James who owned 50% of all Beatles music with John Lennon & Paul McCartney
owning 20% each and original Beatles manager Brian Epstein probably owning 10%. The Beatles named the business group Northern
Songs after the Northern part of England where the band grew up. In 1965 Northern Songs became a public
company with John & Paul owning 15% each and George and Ringo splitting a
smaller percentage of royalty rights and Dick James still owning a larger
percentage. In 1969 Dick James ended up
selling his portion to ATV music and The Beatles, who were facing massive
losses of money with their own record company Apple Corps, ended up losing the
rights to their music. [v] In 1985 ATV music ended up putting the
entire Beatles catalogue up for auction.
Michael Jackson, then flushed with cash from the #1 best selling album
“Thriller” at the time, decided to enact on this financial investment tip
ironically given to him by Sir Paul when they worked together on a pair of
songs in the 1980’s and bought the Beatles catalogue outright. I go on to explain why Michael Jackson
realized the Beatles songs would be worth a lot more than his own songs.
“I can understand why Michael Jackson would want to own
The Beatles entire music catalog. Michael
Jackson probably knew you were the better songwriter than him and your legacy
would outlast his. If you want to
compare the two songs you two did together ‘The Girl is Mine’ and ‘Say Say Say’
of the two the one you wrote was more complex, richer in texture and a true
duet. It was more like a dual-et as ‘Say
Say Say’ could be read as a guy trying to act cool and not caring of a girls’
affection on the outside but inside, he dying to know that the girl likes him
too. This is the opposite of Michael’s ‘The
Girl is Mine’ which I can tell was just you and Michael taking turns singing
the same melody. I’m not sure how many
artists are regularly covering a Michael Jackson song or wanting to sing one
out loud. It’s hard for me to imagine
someone other than Michael Jackson singing something like ‘Thriller’ or ‘Billie
Jean’. Meanwhile, everyone sounds good
singing one of The Beatles songs and wants to sing them because they are simple
and catchy and good. I remember shortly
after “Now and Then” came out YouTube music teacher [vi] Rick Beato sang the song, and he sounded
halfway decent singing it. Everyone
does sound somewhat good singing a Beatles song which is why they continually
sing them. I think it’s because you and
John always kept the song in mind 1st and the performance of it 2nd. I remember you saying you wanted to be a bit
like Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin and Rodgers &
Hammerstein that wrote songs but didn’t really sing them themselves. You were OK with others performing the songs.”
And performed it the world has. Yes, I am grateful the world has a new
Beatles song and I am grateful for the contributions Paul McCartney has given
the world musically. So, it’s about
time I wrote him a letter thanking him for all that he has done for the world,
and for the joy he has brought me.
I’ll let you know if I get a response back.
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