Paul said something interesting on Letterman the other night: "People know my history much better than I do." I suppose that is part of what it means to be a Beatle, to be famous beyond famous. Everyone knows who you are. Everyone's heard your music. People have made you their lifelong study, or at least their lifelong soundtrack.
They think they know you, but they've never met you. They've heard you singing about Yesterday and Hey Jude and Back in the U.S.S.R and A Day in the Life...and they think they know what you were thinking when you wrote that song. They think they understand their lives more clearly because you were singing that song for them, and that song hit so hard that it MUST be reciprocal. You, the Beatle, have to have been affected by that transformation, too, even though it wasn't yours and you didn't experience it, and it was someone else altogether who created that experience from your music.
Sometimes I wonder if the Beatles themselves wished they knew what it was like to discover the Beatles, years after they were initially popular, and make them their own, just as I did as a high school kid in the early nineties.
What would it be like to be asked the same questions about your past over and over? That was one of the surprising things about Letterman's questions to McCartney the other night. They were all about being a Beatle; nothing about his new album, very little about his current life. It seemed like Letterman was a bit starstruck even. Maybe he was. Maybe he saw that performance Paul gave back on February 9, 1964 in that very same theatre that Letterman himself works in, 45 (really? 45?) years later. Maybe he's in awe of the 73 million people who tuned in. He would've been about 17, and maybe he was one of those 73 million glued to the TV.
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At first Paul's comment about other people knowing his histor better than he did seemed strange, but after a little thought it made sense. The memories that he has of his life probably don't revolve around the statistical data of his musical career. I'm sure that he remembers playing in concerts and on t.v. and such, but probably not every gig he ever proformed. But, there are people out there who probably know every place Paul has ever preformed, and they can probably tell you how many times he has played a certian song in concert. It seems to me that for Paul being a Beatle was an experience, but for others, it turned into a lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's pretty crazy to think about your own memory of the things that you've done. If I were constantly being interviewed, constantly being recorded, constantly being studied, I sure as hell wouldn't be out there studying up on myself. I'm sure after a while, Paul just got really frustrated with all the stuff that was coming out and simply gave up on trying to make sure things were accurate. I mean, look back at the whole "Paul is Dead" thing back in the mid-sixties. Even when he showed up in person to debunk the rumor that he was dead, people still believed he was a Paul McCartney impersonator!
ReplyDeleteYou make an interesting comment about turning the study of the Beatles into a lifestyle. It's an interesting thing to think about; how would you feel of someone made you the focus of their intellectual and social life? How would you feel if such a huge portion of your life was documented? All the stupid thngs you say to friends, all the stupid things you say uner the influence, all the contradictions...it would be a nightmare.
Also, I think many people have selective memories that help to block out the crappy things. How did Paul feel during his recent marital issues with Heather, the one-legged gold-digger? Of course, how would Heather feel if she knew I just called her a one-legged gold digger. It's pretty offensive, and I would never say something like to her face, especially since I really don't know the details of the divorce. Maybe Paul was a total a-hole to her.
It makes you wonder how accurate the "public memory" of you (or anyone else) is.