It goes without saying that
the name “Paul McCartney” is
the name of a legend. Over the
last six decades, it has gathered
enough mythic credibility to
almost be synonymous with
“legend” in itself. Diehard fans
across the globe (of which there
are no doubt millions) are plenty
familiar with McCartney as he
stands today, from the frequent
musical collaborations to the
sworn veganism to (perhaps
most notoriously) the explosively
impressive
live
performances
and firework-spurred stadium
tours.
But roped in with McCartney’s
many current ventures is the fact
that to most of the world, and
even to many of those diehard
fans, McCartney is a Beatle (or
rather, a former Beatle) first and
foremost. The classic McCartney
sound — and he has so many
sounds — is the sound of the ’60s
and the ’70s. Distinguished bass
and catchy guitar riffs, lyrics and
melodies sometimes tender and
wholesome, sometimes snarled
or even screamed. Think “Maybe
I’m Amazed,” “Live and Let Die”
or “Blackbird.”
This is all what makes Egypt
Station, McCartney’s new release
through Capitol Records, such
a thoroughly classic record at
its core. It’s his most Beatle-y
album in ages, permeated with
unmistakable touches from his
time in Wings and even The
Fireman. For all the different
meanings
McCartney’s
name
has taken on, Egypt Station
embodies almost all of them.
When you think of McCartney,
you might think of his screaming
on the earliest Beatles tracks
like the “Long Tall Sally” cover;
you might think of the tender
empathy of “Here Today” or
“And I Love Her”; you might
think of electric guitars, ambient
Fireman-style electronica, piano
cascades or acoustic familiarity.
If you think of any one of these
things, you are thinking of Egypt
Station.
The album begins with the
scenic “Opening Station,” which
offers us a flash of the strange
atmospherics
with
which
McCartney experimented during
his Fireman projects alongside
Youth. He then gets heavy right
away with “I Don’t Know,”
a sweeping look inward that
begins with a “Let It Be”-esque
piano solo and rapidly evolves
into a heartfelt ballad, repeatedly
questioning, “What’s wrong with
me?/ I don’t know, I don’t know.”
Egypt Station is full of these
introspective moments, which
recur in “Confidante” and in
“Happy With You,” a genuinely
soft-hearted
song
faintly
reminiscent of John Lennon’s
“Watching the Wheels.”
Even in his more thoughtful
songs, McCartney sacrifices none
of his energy, nor the trademark
creative edge that has brought so
much variety into his catalogue.
Yet it is on a few of the album’s
jumpier songs that this side of
him really gets a chance to shine.
“Come On To Me,” released as
a striking single back in Jun.,
is jaunty, fun, irresistible and
above all else, unmistakably
McCartney. It’s almost too easy to
picture him in concert, slamming
his guitar and singing wide-eyed
into a microphone, cocking his
head. “You know we can’t be seen
exchanging
information,”
he
sings, as suggestive and sly as he
has been ever since his days as a
Quarryman.
Thrumming
electronica
eclipses into a classic-feeling rock
riff in “Who Cares,” with Macca
showing off his impressive vocal
range with several high-pitched
whoops. When he shouts his
way through the second chorus
(“Who cares what the idiots say
/ Who cares what the idiots do”),
it’s so easy to hear the much
younger man who once belted
out hits like “Twist and Shout.”
On “Fuh You,” he sings, “On the
night that I met you, I was out
on the town,” and it rings true;
listening, you can’t help but think,
“Sure, I bet Paul McCartney does
have nights out on the town!” He
also plays with our expectations
in the chorus: “Want a love that’s
so proud and real / You make me
wanna go out and steal / I just
want it fuh you.” His enunciation
brings a different meaning to
mind, though, and the wording
is almost certainly McCartney’s
way of lyrically “fuh”-ing with
us.
Amid an album that takes us
through worlds where love can
be stolen, and where butterflies
“stomp around the forest /
chanting long lost anthems,”
some quality songs — like the
tender “Hand in Hand” and the
obligatory-ish
peace
anthem
“People Want Peace” — are left
a little forgettable compared to
the rest. The truly thoughtful
political track is not “People
Want Peace” but rather “Despite
Repeated Warnings,” a song
similar to “Band on the Run” in its
creative and sprightly multiple-
act structure. Lines about a ship
doomed under an incompetent
captain feel decidedly allegorical.
It is difficult to hear lines like
“Those who shout the loudest /
May not always be the smartest,”
“How can we stop him? / Grab
the keys and lock him up” and
“The captain’s crazy, but he
doesn’t let them know it / He’ll
take us with him if we don’t do
something soon to slow it,” and
not think of Donald Trump,
whom McCartney has repeatedly
and vocally criticized.
Egypt Station is stunningly
fresh,
relentlessly
energetic
and simultaneously fun and
thoughtful. It is noteworthy that
we are getting an album like
this not only from an artist well
into his 70s, but from an artist
who proves himself to the world
anew every single decade, every
year, every day. One would have
thought McCartney had nothing
left to prove as early as 1971, but
his career since then has been
anything but coasting, from his
musical work (including regular
album releases — both solo and
with The Fireman — and his
wildly popular live tours) to his
activism. “Do It Now” offers
us a window into the icon’s
motivation, a song that looks
toward a cloudy future with
lines like “I’ll be leaving in the
morning / Watch me go” and
“I don’t know where the wind
is blowing,” and entreats the
listener to “Do it now / While
the vision is clear / Do it now /
While the feeling is here.” Paul
McCartney is doing it now; he
has been his whole life.
ACROSS
1 Setting for
smooth sailing
8 Aptly, it rhymes
with “ahh”
11 Cease and desist
order?
14 Stuffed oneself
15 Pursue
romantically
16 Valuable metal
17 “NCIS: Los
Angeles” actress
18 Court order?
20 Remove varnish
from
21 NBC weekend
fixture, briefly
22 Distinctive flair
23 Modern
renewable fuel
27 Reverse order?
30 Assures the sad
fate of
34 Easy throw
35 “Angie Tribeca”
TV network
36 “Help me out, will
ya?”
37 Facilitates
40 Bergen of
“Murphy Brown”
41 Stay behind
42 Drunkard
43 Dubai’s fed.
44 Former Russian
rulers
45 Money order?
48 Words said with
an extended fork
50 Continent
explored by
Marco Polo
53 Talk on and on
54 Scalawag
58 Work order?
60 Shoe cushions
62 Abbr. used to
save space
63 Not worth a __
64 Muzzle-loading
gadgets
65 Gag order?
66 Kindle download
67 Chart-reading
exam
DOWN
1 Some
recyclables
2 Going __: fighting
3 Shakespearean
king with three
daughters
4 Beach city near
Hollywood
5 Restraining
order?
6 Quite some time
7 Taiwan-born
director Lee
8 River in a
Stephen Foster
song
9 Voting sites
10 Pioneering ISP
11 Wind up like a
snake
12 Celestial bear
13 High-schooler,
typically
19 Put another roll
of film in
21 Incites to attack,
with “on”
24 More than
occasionally
25 Blots gently
26 Biblical garden
27 Warning
28 Scraps for Fido
29 President
between Bush
and Trump
31 Poppy product
32 Gambling mecca
near Hong Kong
33 Catch some z’s
36 Cookie recipe
yield
38 Bill for drinks
39 Bart Simpson’s
sister
40 San Francisco’s
__ Tower
42 Dance move
45 Postpone one’s
bedtime
46 Pecking order?
47 Go along with
49 Online admin
50 Quite some time
51 “Family
Guy” creator
MacFarlane
52 Nagging desire
55 Sunburn reliever
56 Rx items
57 Sibilant
summons
59 NATO founding
member
60 Fury
61 “Aye? Not!”
By Bruce Haight and Natalie Murphy
©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
09/11/18
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
09/11/18
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2018
On the art of America’s
most neglected wonders
COMMUNITY CUTURE NOTEBOOK
This
summer,
I
literally
stumbled
upon
a
waterfall.
Walking off the beaten path, my
family’s only directions to this
said wonder were delivered by
word of mouth. The deeper we
ventured
into
the
deciduous
woods — hot, sticky, perspiration
running down our backs — the
more desolate our surroundings
became. A few stray hikers passed
us in the opposite direction,
which was enough to confirm
that something lay beyond the
immediate reaches of our sight.
Yet there were no wooden signs
to indicate anything spectacular
around the corner, as if travelers
were
expected
to
discover
the storybook-like wonder by
accident.
The Great Falls in Cleveland
Metro Park was our destination.
A Google search revealed an
abundance of spectacular images,
but a Google Maps search revealed
almost nothing. Finally, bordering
on frustration, we met a traveler
who took us as far as a cluster of
bushes slightly off the trail.
“Follow this path down, and
you’ll see it,” the man said, a hint
of a smile tracing his features. The
“path” he described was nothing
more than a narrow, sharp
downhill slope of chocolate-
brown mud, mostly disguised
by criss-crossing sharp thorns.
Staggering down the path, sinking
our shoes into the soft earth and
wincing at every prick, we saw
it. Soaring above us, thundering
sheets of water crashing down
onto the rocks, the Great Falls
roared.
Finding rare gems like these
can be exhilarating, giving you
a
top-of-the-world-like
high.
But I believe it’s more humbling
than anything. Mother Nature
is reminiscent of an artist who
feels no need to show off her
brilliance. Some of her most
beautiful waterfalls are concealed
behind thickets of rainforest trees,
inaccessible to man. Her canyons
take days to cross and her tallest
mountains
are
unreachable.
The beauty in the world’s most
magnificent
rock
formations,
deserts and hot springs is that
they would shine even if they were
never seen by our eyes. There’s no
need for public appreciation or
popularity. If anyone is humble,
it’s the earth.
As I sat among the rocks at the
base of the Great Falls, reaching
down and feeling the icy-cool
water tickle my fingertips, I felt so
small. Small, but comforted. I was
a tiny, passing speck in the face of
the world, but this world embraced
me with open arms. It called to me
to explore and to educate myself on
my surroundings. Nature’s canvas
is rocks and water, and her art is
in the sandy pebbles bouncing
along the stream and the purple
wildflowers poking their heads
out of the green shrubs along the
bank. Famous Barcelona-based
artist Antoni Gaudí never used
any straight lines in his sculptures,
drawing from nature’s brilliant
asymmetry. The world around
us isn’t symmetric, but instead
slanted and sloping in all the right
places.
The National Park System
estimates that over 330 million
people visited U.S. National Parks
and 807 million visited America’s
State Parks last year. The statistics
are staggering, but I can’t help
but wonder: How many of these
visitors actually saw the parks?
I don’t mean taking a weekend
trip, snapping some pictures and
leaving. Truly seeing the parks
means sitting in a spot for hours
and thinking of nothing but the
art around you. Closing your eyes
and realizing that the tunes of the
blue jays combined with the shrill
calls of the red-wing blackbirds
sounds an awful lot like a duet,
like a sweet harmony. Staring
up through the highest canopy
of trees to glimpse the brilliant,
untainted blue sky. America’s
parks have so much to offer, and
my heart breaks a little every time
I see a tourist stare at a waterfall
for much less time than they take
pictures of it.
The
relationship
between
humans and technology becomes
more complex with every passing
day. Can’t nature be the one place
where we put our phones away?
America’s parks are receiving
record high visitors, but are still
neglected.
Climb
the
Rocky
Mountains and see the conifers
rustle like paintbrush bristles in
the breeze. Let the brilliant hues
of Yellowstone’s hot springs sink
into your being. Feel the ferocity
of the Atlantic waves crashing
onto the stony beaches of Maine.
The introspection that comes
with being immersed in nature is
much more valuable than the site
itself.
Ann Arbor is no exception.
On the rare chance that you have
free time during the school year,
sit in the Arb. Or along Barton
Lake. If nothing else, The Diag.
Something, anything, to offer
perspective on how beautiful this
planet is.
It’s his most
Beatle-y
album in ages,
permeated with
unmistakable
touches from his
time in Wings
and even The
Fireman
‘Egypt Station’ is the perfect McCartney album
Egypt Station
Paul McCartney
Capitol Records
MUSIC REVIEW
LAURA DZUBAY
Daily Arts Writer
Pixabay
TRINA PAL
Daily Arts Writer
Courtesy of Trina Pal
6 — Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com