Great fun at the Paul McCartney show last night. What a set list - a ton of Beatles tunes (something like twenty) for one thing, and not just the ones you might expect, but some from off the beaten track (although even lesser known Beatles songs are still famous by most standards), such as "I Got a Feeling" with its intricate inner-voice harmonies in the guitar parts, "Things We Said Today", an under-appreciated pop masterpiece, "The Night Before", "I Will" (ditto for both). A lot of great Wings stuff too, including one of my favourites, the mighty "Let Me Roll It". Also excellent versions of "A Day in the Life", "Give Peace a Chance", and "Something", tributes to John and George, of course. And he's still in terrific voice, as powerful versions of "Got to Get You into My Life", "Band on the Run" and "Golden Slumbers" demonstrated. He's got an excellent band too - lots of great guitar stuff (with many contributions from McCartney), excellent backing vocals, strong grooves, and just the right attitude in terms of how to back a legend. Here's a song that he didn't play last night, but which I find is sort of his quintessential statement regarding how he sees his place in the world, in which he has always shown, as Auden put it, "an affirming flame": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2udwmwNBwbs.

A little over a week until my first ex-Beatle concert, and I'm thinking about the songs that I'd really like to hear at the show. In the past, I've had good luck a few times with this kind of wishful thinking: Dylan doing probably my favourite of his tunes (it certainly was at the time, anyway), "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" early in a concert a few years back and Lindsey Buckingham doing "Trouble" second in a very memorable set at the Metropolis in 2007 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXTr3e0VPNc). Anyway, among the great McCartney tunes from his solo years, I'd really like to hear "Rock Show" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_UtHHS8xWM) and this one, which was co-written with Elvis Costello, if I'm not mistaken: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h85OGkCaKIg. And of course, anything from Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, which is up there with his greatest stuff in my opinion. I'll post some more requests in the days ahead, including a list of my favourite McCartney tunes from the Beatles.

A question: What exactly is a blues ballad? Can anyone out there help me with this? I first heard the term some years ago during the terrific video that Donald Fagen did about the influence of blues on his songwriting, when he compared his use of major seven chords in a blues form to "blues ballads done by Bobby 'Blue' Bland". I'll have to find the video (that's right - I have it on VHS) before I can double-check the accuracy of the quotation I just gave or provide the correct title of the video, but I think that was the gist of it. And the Wikipedia entry was OK, but not entirely convincing. However it did hip me to an amazing Fats Domino song that I hadn't heard before, called "Every Night About This Time", which you have to check out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZpJmHldX0s).

And the quandary also got me thinking about other possible examples, such as the hugely under-appreciated Stones tune, "I Got the Blues" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgF-PRY96Is&playnext=1&list=PLFCC93639C9A06912). The song is also a good example of what happens when Jagger and Richards really get down to working together. Here's hoping they do it again soon.

In retrospect, much as I enjoyed Keith's autobiography (Life), certain things about his thinking keep on bugging me, particularly the way he sort of treats Mick as if he was a by-stander while they were making their great albums of the early seventies. Of course, you know that there's an underlying respect there, but for whatever reason he does slag him pretty hard throughout the book. My point in this post is this: what Keith was to rock and roll guitar, Mick was to rock and roll singing, no more or less. And people that don't think that his contribution to the band (and music, in general) was the equivalent of Keith's (or Charlie's) are not hearing things accurately. Try singing along with "Ventilator Blues" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l0X1w8a7D8) or "Let It Loose" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrCiKD-cBvo) if you don't believe me. Mick's experience as a serious blues student and instrumentalist (Keith does give credit to his harmonica playing - but he's an excellent guitarist as well) allowed him to find melodic material and phrasings that were much more sophisticated than most people (including Keith, apparently) realize. Here are the lyrics to the album, arguably the greatest in rock 'n' roll history, that contains the classic tracks mentioned above: http://dougscripts.com/itunes/pdf/examplepdf.pdf. (You'll need them to sing along. Try it. Seriously.)

Got a ticket to Sir Paul's second Montreal show the other day, and am really surprised how much I'm already looking forward to it. For one thing, and I'm ashamed to say this, it'll be the first time that I've ever seen a Beatle in concert. I know. I can't believe it myself. How could this have happened? I guess living in either Montreal or Edmonton my entire life didn't help, but on the other hand, there are planes, boats, cars, trains in existence - so that argument isn't very good. In any event, I'm going to really enjoy not only the concert itself but also the build-up to it. What do I mean by that, you wonder? For one thing, I'm going to prepare for it by re-listening to all the McCartney I can - be it Beatles, solo, Wings, or Fireman - and I hope to write a few posts about it along the way as well.

Speaking of McCartney solo work, I'm going to mention an album that I think is just amazing, even though I've written about it in the past, the tragically under-appreciated Chaos and Creation in the Backyard from 2005. Produced by Nigel Godrich (of Radiohead fame), who may be the best producer he's had since George Martin, it's one of my favourite McCartney recordings (and I include the second side of Abbey Road in that assessment). Here's the wonderful "Jenny Wren": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9GvXFphCFc. The description under the video (i.e. the "Show More" thing) is worth checking out, too.

Gotta love the Google thing today - a very cool tribute to the great Les Paul. It'd be hard to think of a more influential twentieth century musician, if you think about it. I mean, overdubbing and the electric guitar, what more could someone be asked to contribute? Anyone who uses either (or in most cases, both), which means virtually everyone in popular music, owes him a tip of the cap - and a serious re-listening to his recordings. The place to start, for me, is obvious: his work with the astonishing vocalist, Mary Ford (talk about a singer who is in tune!). Without these two pioneers, would we have had The Beach Boys or Queen? Or Led Zeppelin? Props needed. Here's a cool clip of the duo doing one of their most famous numbers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0ffdwBUL78.

Another very cool thing about the Keith Richards' book, Life (2010), is the credit that he gives to other musicians for inspiring/helping him and the Stones. The sections that treat the early years of the band and their blues purist attitude are great, as are the tributes that he gives to Chuck Berry and Gram Parsons. The former name has been associated with the Stones since their inception. Not only did they record a whole whack of his songs, but Keith, by his own admission, stole (or is it borrowed?) virtually every lick that he played. Here's "Bye Bye Johnny", the first song on their first EP (from January, 1964): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdBKH4-6q1w. But Parsons' influence on the band wasn't as well known (before this book, to me, anyway), but now I hear it loud and clear. I hope that his charismatic style and true love of country music will inspire other rockers to keep that door to the past (and future) open as well. Here's "Dead Flowers" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YRdxHHFKvQ) and "Juanita" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvquxLSW64M&feature=related) for your consideration and enjoyment.