Spent quite a bit of time at the Public Records Office this week, found some amazeballs stuff. Look at this contraption. That's virtually a staircase you can walk up there.
It was seventy years ago today that Colonel Pewter debuted in the Melbourne Age. This really is a brilliant story and was deservedly reprinted in book form soon after it completed in the British News Chronicle. Horner was Australian of course (but lived in Britain for fifty or more of his eighty or so years) and I love the 'outsider' view of British society this has (not that these three strips necessarily demonstrate that).
For two seconds I considered serialising Colonel Pewter like my massively successful repeats of Flook but the first adventure was published as Colonel Pewter in Ironicus, which is excellent and I suggest you get a copy of that for yourself. I also noticed that the following week's run of strips in the Age was very badly reproduced (or at least the version available via newspapers.com is a very bad reproduction) and it seemed a bit of a painful thing to inflct on anyone including myself. I will consider resurrecting some adventures from later though.
So I finished the McCartney book, it ends with the release and positive response to Band on the Run which even Rolling Stone magazine thinks was good, great, whatever. I am not a big fan of Band on the Run myself so overall the whole narrative arc ended with a bit of a whimper for me, but I'll live. I suppose it was kind of vindicating for PMcC. I don't quite understand why Linda's song 'Oriental Nightfish' didn't make it onto Band on the Run because it's a better song than most of the songs on that record, I always liked it - it was the real standout on a horrible Beatles bootleg I once had, called Indian Rope Trick, I didn't even realise it was Linda singing it! Anyway is that important? No. The book is ultimately yeah OK but you know, am I wiser or stupider for having 'read' it? The question you always have to ask on finishing any book. I think I am not wiser so I am probably stupider.
Oh, I will say this: as per my gripe about the way the authors dealt with Europe - they also are I think a bit dismissive of the Lagos period (I don't know where they got their information from but I don't think they spoke with any Nigerians) and also considering Paul and Linda apparently consider Jamaica their holiday destination of preference, we get very little information about Jamaica. I'm not going to say I could have done better though. Meanwhile, here are some guinea pigs and eggs, from an alternative universe.
As has been all-too-extensively documented on this blog I have an outright fetish for championing the early 70s McCartney and this book does stoke those fires somewhat (at the same time - just getting this out of the way here - it has to be said the authors pander to their audience with silly jokes and coy allusions when talking about marijuana etc).
Like the Lewisohn book (which they defer/refer to often enough) part of the appeal of this work is the context(s). Context #1 is the wider British (usually) context (when Wings go to Europe for instance we get only the most bland, 'foreigners innit' take on the countries they visit - most important seems to be dealing which German venues were built by the Nazis) of coal strikes and television shows. Context #2 is PMcC's battle with the other ex-Beatles and Allen Klein, which I have to say is still kind of fascinating and it is not revealed either why the others loved Klein or why PMcC immediately hated him (although he soon had reason enough). If there's anyone out there who still thinks McC broke up the Beatles, here's the final nail in the coffin of that myth - Harrison and Lennon were such entitled pricks. But PMcC could be an entitled prick himself, of course, and he knows it, particularly when it comes to his two-faced insistence that Wings was a band but also commandeering control wherever he deemed it necessary, and also, not paying Seiwell, Laine and McCullough (that's the line-up we're at) properly and not understanding why they needed to be paid properly - it wasn't just a matter of fairness but also an actual matter of paying their bills. At the same time, he seemed to expect them to be on call 24-7. At the same, same time, they could occasionally be a part of some amazing records so I don't know - what would you opt for if you were them?
The press, particularly the shitful British music press, hate McCartney, Ram, Wild Life and indeed Wings generally, for the most grotesquely idiotic reasons, and it obviously does McC's head in quite a bit, as he keeps trying to pander to them. I've just go to the bit where he forces the group to do umpteen (like, not a hundred but nearly) versions of 'Hi, Hi, Hi' to get a groove it's never going to get because let's be fair - it's a shit song. It made me tired hearing all about this constant recording, re-recording and overdubbing of 'Hi, Hi, Hi' that it was actually the first song discussed in this book that I stopped the book to listen to, just trying to figure out what it could or should have been. It's so pedestrian, a chugging bore, I can't believe this was deemed the best version. Anyway, I also can believe it, because I know that people who fuss over things too long lose perspective. I have a feeling that Red Rose Speedway is 'Hi, Hi, Hi' writ large - too much angst-ridden trying to please people who hate you. I know from the expanded RRS that some of the best songs ('Tragedy', 'I Would Only Smile') were left off, and the result is possibly my least favourite Wings album - don't know London Town well enough (saving it for a rainy day).
Oh, and by the way, big surprise, the first incarnation of Wings aside from Denny Laine were jerks to Linda, in fact, almost everyone was a jerk to Linda, and kudos to Linda for hanging in there, not many would have. There's a gross story, told without comment, about Linda coming into a hotel room backstage and asking what the smell was and Henry McCullough says something in the vein of it's fucking rock and roll feet darling fuck off if you don't like it, though I don't think he calls her darling because after all she's someone else's old lady.
I am told by blogger that over 5000 Singaporeans looked at this blog in the last 7 days, something that I actually find extremely hard to believe, extremely. But hello Singapore.
I have nothing to report. I have been working hard on various conference-journal article-book chapter projects. Well, I suppose I have that to report but that's all.
I did get this in the mail today:
Also, I made some good looking bread, but not hungry, I don't know if it is actually good or just looks good.
I ran a tour of Churchill with Open House Latrobe today, I was pretty pleased with how it went, good attendees and I learned a lot, as I kne...
