VIDEO: Paul McCartney and Dave Grohl rock the Grammy awards.

In case you missed it, Paul McCartney and Dave Grohl ROCKED the Grammy Awards last night.  This wasn’t Paul and Dave’s first time together performing in recent memory.

“I Saw Her Standing There” (Feb 2009)

Here’s Paul and Dave Grohl live together at Anfield from last year in case you missed it.

“Band on the Run” (June 2008)

No Paul did not win a grammy award for His Amoeba EP, but it was an outstanding star-studded night.  Checkout the complete list of winners here. As the article indicates, it was a mini-British invasion of sorts with several Brits snapping up many many awards.

McCartney to play at Coachella

Paul is no stranger to performing at festivals, as we all have seen at the Glastonbury festival a few years back, but this announcement comes as a bit of a surprise.  The Coachella Festival is the hipster of all hipsters.  We have to admit that it’s a little strange to hear that a Beatle is playing at this cutting edge festival.  It’s a little weird to be hearing  Portishead or Sigur Ros and even Morrisey in the same breath.  There are hipster indie bands, and then there is the thought of a Beatle.

I guess it’s most strange knowing that Paul never, at least late in his career, aged as a “cool” guy.  He always held his artistic credibility, but did many things that are quite cringe-worthy.  That cool factor kind of dropped a bit.  In recent times, though Paul’s cool temperature is red hot.  He’s got several artistic and adventurous solo albums, and has also produced a remix album, and avant-garde album under a different moniker that would make the coolest hipster nod in approval.  Maybe a Fireman tune or two will make a Coachella appearance as well, it’s nothing too much just out of sight.

Here’s what we’ve read.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival got famous by presenting the sounds of today and tomorrow. But this year California’s most celebrated live-music event is gambling on Paul McCartney and the music of “Yesterday.”

Booking the former Beatle, who is listed in the record books as the most successful musician in pop history, would be the safest choice imaginable for most music festivals. But the internationally respected Coachella festival, which is set for April 17-19, has been pulling in crowds of more than 140,000 fans by taking an edgier path with alt-rock heroes you would hear on a college town’s pirate radio station.

Presented with a chance to tap into music history and veteran star power, the promoters have signed the 66-year-old icon, who personifies the mature pop mainstream. The move could help the festival compete amid a grim economy and a host of imitators that have sprung up across the country; the news of McCartney’s presence — for better or worse — instantly will make Coachella a hot topic with music fans nationwide who have been anxiously awaiting the list of this year’s headliners.

What remains to be seen is whether the choice will cost the festival credibility with its core clientele: young fans who are more likely to listen to the White Stripes than the “White Album” and who are far more familiar with Rage Against the Machine than “Band on the Run.”

Paul McCartney: A Fireman Interviewed.

Paul McCartney has been on nothing but a roll with his latest string of albums.  OK, really since Flaming Pie, he’s been on an outstanding run that has been nothing but outstanding.  Those late-career solo albums are all simply stunning.  It’s really hard to find a true clunker in there at all.  His latest masterpiece, while not a proper McCartney solo album, is one his best solo releases period.

The same can be said for interviews as of late with Sir Paul.  Since his divorce Paul has approached the media with a sense of openess and reflection that we have not seen or heard for many many years.  Yes, sone of Paul’s interview answers are canned and retreads, but ever the public figure, Paul is able to always give us new insights into his mind, and life.  Ever informative and entertaining.

Here’s what we’ve read.

I imagine you know who Paul McCartney is, but here are some recent data: He’s 66 years old, single and financially secure. He recently released Electric Arguments, the third album by Fireman, an ongoing McCartney side project that represents the former Beatle’s foray into trance and dance music. Composed of McCartney and British producer/deejay Youth, Fireman opens its third full-length release with “Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight,” a tune that features the most bone-rattling vocal McCartney’s delivered since “Helter Skelter.” The first time I heard it on the radio, I thought it was Jack White. Not bad for a 66-year-old. On the occasion of the album’s release, McCartney agreed to a short chat.

L.A. WEEKLY: At what point did you become an adult?

PAUL McCARTNEY: When my first baby was born.

How old do you feel emotionally?
Twenty-five.

What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve overcome in your life?
Linda’s death.

What was it about Linda Eastman that made her such a stabilizing force in your life?
She was just such a supercool girl. She just was. She was supercool.

Do you believe in destiny?
Yes.

Just another Beatles book? Not quite.

Everytime I even think about putting my pen to paper and writing that “great Beatles'” that I know is inside of me I think of titles like this.  There are book about The Beatles’, and then there are things that are much greater.  Jonathan Gould’s awesome tome definitely falls in the latter category.

It’s about so much more than the Fab Four.  It’s bigger than a dissection of songs and chords.  It’s all encompasing of an era.  It encapsulates so much, and really takes you back in time.  If you haven’t read this one yet then you absolutely should NOT miss this title.  It’s one of those essential titles that all music fans should read.

Here’s what we’ve read.

Finally, what the world has been crying out for: a book about the Beatles. This is forgivable sarcasm when you consider that there are more than 500 of them already. I must have about a dozen of them myself, and have read a dozen more. These range from the indispensable – Ian MacDonald’s Revolution in the Head, Bob Spitz’s The Beatles, the Hunter Davies and Philip Norman works and, for my money the most fascinating of them all, Devin McKinney’s inspirational, insanely ambitious Magic Circles – to some of the shoddiest and most opportunistic verbiage you will encounter in the course of a reading life. Anyone with any sense of professional pride now writing about the group must feel like a treasure hunter going over ground that has been thoroughly ransacked by hundreds of people, some armed with pretty sophisticated detection equipment.

Snoop Dogg asks Paul for some help.

I can only imagine what the conversations between a rap icon and Paul McCartney would go like.  Maybe they’d share a bit of the hippie lettuce, and talk some football.  Somehow, I don’t really see that happening actually.

It looks like Snoop is having some visa problems, and wants Paul to give him a push to get past the ban.  Nothing better than a character witness in the form of a football legend and a Knighted musician.

Here’s what we’ve read.

US rapper Snoop Dogg has called on footballer David Beckham and former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney to help overturn his UK visa ban.

The rapper has faced continued visa problems following an altercation between his entourage and police at Heathrow Airport in 2006.

Paul on The View: He keeps two personnas + VIDEO.

Could you imagine spending your entire adult life being one of the most famous people on the planet?  Truthfully, as much as I would wish and dream for it, it must be total hell.  I imagine you have to be a pretty guarded individual.  You have to constantly worry about the things you say, and the things you do in the court of public opinion.

I really don’t find what Paul says as too revealing.  It’s his way of coping.  I just find it interesting that he twists it around to focus on The Fireman.  Yes, we know that Paul’s creative muses have many faces, but it’s a bit of it as a stretch to say it’s another personna.  Yes, The Fireman-leanings of Paul McCartney are different, but it’s still a McCartney record afterall.  Just a thought.

Paul on The View (Part I)

Paul on The View (Part II)

Here’s what we’ve read.

Paul McCartney keeps fame from driving him crazy by maintaining two versions of himself.

McCartney tells ABC’s “The View” he separates the real Paul from the famous Paul. He says Famous Paul does the shows and Real Paul goes home and watches TV.

New Lennon book collects John interviews.

So sorry folks for the lack of regular updates since the New Year, but things have been busy around here.  We have been playing with redesigning the blog and making some changes to things around here.  Please bear with me as I make some changes, and bring in some really new and exciting content!

We are looking at more ways of making the blog even more active for 2009 , and should unveil a great redesign in the coming week(s).  For now, though updates will be a bit spotty.

For now though it looks like a new John Lennon title is collecting some interviews from the late-great legend. We look forward to hearing more details about it in the near future. It looks promising.  Any new Lennon titles is always promising.

Here’s what we’ve read.

New Book Collects John Lennon’s Essential Interviews

JOHN LENNON: The Essential Interviews collects the pop music legend’s most candid and inspirational interactions with the media. Available for advanced order and immediate delivery from Rock Reader Books here: (http://www.lulu.com/content/5363419), this exciting new book – which is also now available for download – will be formally released March 3, 2009 through traditional and online book retailers.

Beginning in the sensational heyday of the Beatles, The Essential Interviews traces Lennon’s personal and creative evolution over the span of the next fifteen years up until his tragic murder in December 1980. Allowing the iconic musician to tell his own story, JOHN LENNON: The Essential Interviews finds the genius behind most of the Beatles best songs, delivering the memorable, newsworthy sentiments that captivated the media and record buying public alike.

Compiled by pop music journalist John D. Luerssen specifically for Rock Reader Books,

this project offers direct perspective from Lennon on how the following legendary sentiments took shape:

“Part of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.”

“Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.”

“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”

“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.”

Thanks for John Luerssen for sending us the link.  Hopefully we will be able to review this book in the near future.

Another year and no Beatles under the Christmas tree.

We all hope that Santa Claus brought you several Beatle goodies under the Christmas tree this year, and you all were able to ring in the New Year with a loved one.  The end of this year was a bit odd.  As of late, Beatle fans have had a few items to put on their Christmas wish-list.  This year was a bit unique.  We were treated to a new, and stellar, McCartney album, a Beatles monopoly game, a White Album puzzle, and the All Together Now DVD.  But really, there was no truly HUGE gift worthy item under the tree that really got us going.

There wasn’t a new album that was released as a Christmas item, there really was no big item officially from the Fabs to make us reorganize our Christmas lists. We do hope that Santa was good to you this year, and that you had a wonderful New Year, and that 2009 is a truly good one for you and yours.  We have a lot to look forward to as Beatle fans as we face a new year.  We still have the possibility of  the remastered back catalog being released and you all know how much that gets us speculating and drooling.

• Let us know all of those goodies that Santa left under your tree. We’d love to hear in the comments below.

Here’s what we’ve read.

If you still believe in Santa Claus, you might also have expected to wake up on Christmas morning and find an iPod stocked with the long-promised reissues of all the Beatles albums. But if you know the shocking truth about Santa, you probably know that the vaunted Beatles reissues don’t exist either, outside the vaults of EMI, the group’s record label, and Apple, the company the band set up in 1967 to oversee its interests.

Other long-anticipated Apple projects, such as DVD versions of the Beatles’ Shea Stadium concert and the Let It Be film, also failed to turn up for the holidays. If you put any faith in Paul McCartney’s passing mention, in November, that the 1967 avant-garde track “Carnival of Light” might be released, don’t hold your breath: This track has been dangled before (about 10 years ago, when McCartney used it as the soundtrack of an unreleased “photofilm,” made from photographs of the Beatles taken by his first wife, Linda).

Indeed, whenever McCartney releases a new album (as he did the week “Carnival of Light” was mentioned), reports of “long-lost” Beatles tracks that “might be released” suddenly surface, but the recordings themselves do not.

Even the most believable of reports, floated by EMI insiders, proved fruitless last year. During the summer EMI was said to be preparing a deluxe remastered edition of the The Beatles (popularly known as The White Album) to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its release. The anniversary came and went, with no sign of the reissue.

Imagine: Lennon in TV ad 28 years after his death + VIDEO.

It’s all a little outrageous don’t you think?  I mean I know that they have revived Elvis, Roy Orbison,  and Frank Sinatra, but I don’t they’ve ever done aything truly like this.  I have never seen a dead celebrity used to promote a movement. Personally, I think this ad is in truly poor taste.

Somehow, I just feel uncomfortable about all of this.  I guess if Yoko gives her blessing, then it’s OK.  Somehow I just don’t think I can justify it that’s all.  The more times I watch it, the sicker to my stomach I get actually.

Plus, you’d think they’d find a guy to do a better voice imitation. 

• What are your thoughts on this ad?  See it below. 

Here’s what we’ve read.

Imagine, John Lennon makes a television commercial for charity — 28 years after his death.

Through the use of digital technology, the former Beatle urges people across the United States to support a campaign by “One Laptop per Child” to deliver tough, solar-powered XO laptop computers to the world’s poorest children.

Inebriated Lennon tape grab 30k at auction with AUDIO.

No this may not have been John Lennon’s finest hour, but it certainly is a fun listen.  If you haven’t heard any of the bootleg or outtakes from John’s fabled “lost weekend” then you me dear friends are in for a fun inebriated ride.  I personally find the drunken ramblings of an ex-Beatle playing the moldy oldies quite hillarious.  You have to give John credit for trying to get through these.  Ahh to have been a fly on the wall.  The “lost weekend” outtakes are some of my favorites out there.

Plus, it’s really funny to hear John sing about nipples.  Enjoy!  The tape has been leaked onto youtube in both stereo and mono.  To those of you who are fans of the Lost Lennon radio tapes show this tape should sound a little familiar.

John Lennon – Just Because (mono)

Here’s what we’ve read.

Maybe it wasn’t John Lennon’s best musical effort, but a tape of an apparently inebriated Lennon warbling a cover of Lloyd Price’s “Just Because” brought a sobering $30,000 at auction Sunday in Los Angeles.

John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono, seen here in 1969 at a Paris Flea Market.