No Retirement For Sir Paulie

Sir Paul McCartney (photo credit:AP)

In the wake of Paul's illness last May made a lot of  people think on how he'll be handling his career considering his age and even advised him to retire from the music biz.Many tabloids published their concerns,though not all of them were good ones such as the one written on the cover page of Globe magazine which was a bit exaggerated saying that the 72 year old rock star was closed to death without anyone knowing it.

Though many people especially celebrities wanted that little 'privacy' to remain,we couldn't blame them or their spokespersons to use some white lies to protect their own privacy without hurting the feelings of their fans.

Ok,all of us will get old one day and you can't avoid the inevitable.Many bands and artists such as the Rolling Stones will be touring as long as they can handle it despite of old age.Though the spirit as the late George Harrison once said remained 'younger',one can't possibly avoid the physical changes the body must endure upon reaching the elderly stage.One example of that is Bob Weir who cancelled his shows with the Grateful Dead just recently.But one couldn't argue that amazing stamina they were enduring with the same touring and management pressures they've been handling way back to their heyday.Cool examples of that would be of Chuck Berry who still tours at great acclaim at 87 years old and James Brown who toured until his very last breath.

An interview with Rolling Stone last July 17 saw a healthy and eager Paul McCartney who obviously made no signs that he is on the brink of retiring.He even talked about his illness that prompted him to cancel his Asian shows,being able to rest a bit before going back to the road after recovering.When asked what he's been up to lately McCartney replied enthusiastically "Yeah, I've got a lot of songs that I've written, and some that I need to finish. There's no fixed date, but at the back of my mind, I'll be wanting to clear a few months for me to write up the most likely of the songs that I've got on the boil and figure out how I want to record them and what I want to do with them. But I haven't booked any studio time. It's all there as fun for the future".As the topic went a little more serious with Simon Levinson mentioning his friend Eric Clapton's plan for retirement Paul replied sounding rather melancholic,"I think that's the deciding factor. It would be a pity if Eric retires, because, shit, he really plays good! But he's that kind of guy, Eric. I can see him saying, 'I'm going to retire.' He's kind of a homebody in essence. We've talked about this before. I remember him joking about how I stand up for the whole show. He said, 'I sit down' That's a blues player thing. But he's just too good a player. I would say to him, 'Yeah, by all means, sit down, Eric. But don't retire'".One would notice Sir Paul's voice cracking up a bit especially when hitting higher notes but the fans still love it and he is in fact a Beatle and a genius,nobody cares just for the fact that he is there for all of us sending out love and us in return.

Many of the geniuses of rock music if not gone,are aging and most people couldn't even bare to see their idols all wrinkled up physically but nevertheless the adrenalin remains intact.Let's face the fact that music today isn't as good as it was twenty to fifty years ago and a lot of us were even hungry for the good songs to feed our soul.Perhaps the love for real music and the drive to stay longer is what our aging idols like Sir Paul McCartney has kept them all going.And most of all,its us the fans who pack their shows is what makes them feel so special and give them the thought that there's something more to live for.


(c) Keith Vernon Adagio


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