silverfoxnik

I think these stories abound about so many celebrities /notable people... I'm a life-long Bowie fan and these days, since his passing in 2016, it's hard to find anyone anywhere going to print (so to speak) being critical of his personality. But there are plenty of stories about what an insufferable ego manic he was during long phases of his career - particularly the 1970s... Knowing all that about Bowie doesn't change my opinion about his musical/artistic output, though I suspect if I'd met him and he'd been nasty or rude to me personally, I might feel differently. I'm with @Dad3353 in knowing full well that the world wouldn't miss any of my songs - hell, they don't even know about them anyway thankfully! But I think that the numbers infer that there literally are millions of people who would miss a fair number of McCartney's songs if they were somehow to be withdrawn from the Earth's pop music playlist.

Apologies 🙏😁

@lowdown... I'm just curious how you would determine talent? As for the source of McCartney's reputed musical genius, I doubt it came from any divine intervention - more like a combination of some fortuitous circumstances in his early life, plus inate musical instinct and ability, plus a lot of hard work and an ability to focus on what he wanted to achieve...

Just bought some great headphones from Patrick, who's been a pleasure to deal with from start to finish! Great comms, super-fast shipping and as I said, really good headphones. Highly recommended! 👍 Thanks Patrick - I'm really pleased with the Audio Technica h/phones and hope to deal with you again. 😊 Cheers Nik

Well said @Dad3353 She is one the few artists who's work and career arc (for want of a better phrase) have had that sort of spellbinding power over us mere mortals.. I used to have a book years ago called - I think - 'The Craft of Lyric writing', or something like that anyway... It was a great book, full of fascinating analysis and insight into the craft of lyric writing in popular music..and it had sections on writers like Dylan, The Beatles, Cole Porter etc, etc.. But the author reserved their absolute highest praise for Joni Mitchell, saying that she was just on another level to everyone else. As the years have gone by, I'm more and more convinced that the author was 100% correct. Joni Mitchell is the greatest storytelling songwriter of the last 50 years...

Yep, me too 👍 Used to cover this in a band I was in a few years ago.. We did a mash-up of the original version and Carleen Anderson's cover of it , and it was great fun to play!

Can't agree at all with @Nail Soup @PaulWarning @neilp or @TheLowDown, but hey - that's the joy of good, honest debate here on Basschat... 😁 Only my opinion of course, but Eleanor Rigby (amongst many of McCartney's other songs) is a work of absolute genius. No doubting the stunning foresight and incredible contribution of George Martin of course, and the very different, complimentary genius of John Lennon, but McCartney's place as one of the very, very best songwriters of the 20th century, is absolutely assured. In addition, his bass playing contribution is right up there too and as if that isn't enough, in 2010, he was ranked No. 11 on the Rolling Stone Magazine '100 Greatest Singers of All Time'.

Great stuff there @chris_b! I really like his tone, as well as what he plays too... And that band - they're absolutely rockin'. 👍👌😊

Wow! 😱

I'm in agreement with you on this point... Only my observation of course, but I'd say that here on Basschat, Macca isn't talked about quite as often and/or in quite the same reverential tones as the other bassists you've cited above . Is that because he isn't recognised as having raised the bar for bass? Probably.. Do I agree with that? No... My personal view is that he did raise the bar for bass, bringing far more creativity, and melodic invention to bear in a catalogue of (brilliant) pop songs than some of his contemporaries might otherwise have done.

Just Googled it.. Wow - I didn't know that!! 👍

Sounds good - I've a fair few Adam stories to share too! 👍😊