“paul_title”

Is Paul Dead?

Gail Worley

Should ex-Beatle and surviving half of rock’s arguably greatest song writing team, Paul McCartney, be put out to pasture after a prolific, three-decade career? The subject of whether or not there is any grist for McCartney’s creative mill provided lively debate at a South By Southwest panel entitled “So IS Paul Dead?” Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Tribune and veteran rock critic, Michael Azerrad, took the stance that McCartney’s work is no longer of sufficient quality to be foisted on the masses, while the balance of the eight-man panel (DeRogatis sat in as a replacement for the panel’s only woman, freelance journalist Lorraine Ali) were vociferously pro-Paul.

Singer/songwriters Vic Chestnut and Tommy Keene argued for the artistic validity of McCartney’s current release, Flaming Pie, with heart-felt arguments and fan-based testimonials, with both citing the track “Little Willow” as one of McCartney’s most moving works since “Here There and Everywhere.” The range of arguments for and against McCartney’s post-Beatles body of work included those defending him as one of those legendary artists who perhaps deserves “a lifetime buy-out,” to Azerrad’s suggestion that critical reviews of McCartney’s music have boiled down to “The ‘His best album since’ club.” Pulse Magazine’s Senior Editor and panel moderator, Jackson Brian Griffith, declared himself neutral, and kept the discussion on track by throwing out occasional one-liners.

As with most panel discussions, audience feedback and questions were encouraged. A gentleman who identified himself as Mark Anderson, Program Director for a Modern Rock format radio station in the Midwest, declared his support for McCartney’s music, and offered for consideration an experiment conducted by his station. McCartney’s latest single, “The World Tonight,” was played in heavy rotation, without the DJs back announcing McCartney’s name as the artist. The result? Listener response carried the single to the station’s number one most requested position. “As far as I’m concerned,” Anderson surmised, “Paul can do whatever he wants, because [his music] made my life better.”

Asked for his review of the panel, DeRogatis responded “I’d say it wasn’t as good as the ‘Do the Grateful Dead Suck?’ panel of two years back, but it was less boring than most, hopefully.” ◼