The Terrible Catsafterme

Ex-Beatles, while often sharing songwriting credit with a partner, usually didn’t need to share lead vocal duties with anyone. John had his Yoko…and Paul had Denny Laine. Denny sang lead vocals on no less than six songs on various Paul McCartney and Wings albums, including one of my favorites, The Note You Never Wrote on Wings at the Speed of Sound. In all, Denny Laine played guitar on seven Wings records and two of Paul’s other solo albums, Tug of War and Pipes of Peace. Outside of Paul himself and his wife Linda, Denny Laine was certainly the most recognizable of the Wings band members. Read the rest of this entry »

Say what you will about Yoko Ono and her involvement with the Beatles’ break-up, but I still say she’s one of the kindest of all celebrities when it comes to appreciating her (and John Lennon’s) fans. She has consistently been full of surprises in the dealings I have had with her. As a mega-Beatles fan, I decided that one of the last autograph requests I would make during the Summer of 1985 was to Yoko Ono. On August 16, I sent only a self-address-stamped-envelope to Yoko – as I had no photos to send. Read the rest of this entry »

I was really looking forward to seeing the Cirque du Soleil performance of “Love” – the epic Beatles production of which I wrote about the soundtrack here – on the evening of February 10. Our tickets were for the late show at the Sahara, so Bob, the Wileys, and I had plenty of time to walk over to the casino following our dinner at Battista’s – and our jam-packed day of visiting the Hoover Dam and other adventures in Nevada. We had excellent seats near the front of the stage. It was a theater-in-the-round style staging and we could see everything from where we were sitting. Read the rest of this entry »