"AS KOOL 94.5 Morning Guy at the "Beatles specialist" radio station in the Valley of the Sun, we sometimes think we've heard every great song, know every great story and secret. It's a genuine pleasure to learn we haven't, and then hear and learn something brand new ..."
Bill Gardner
Morning Radio Personality,
KOOL 94.5
Billboard Major Market Air Personality of the Year
Radio & Records finalist 2002 Air Personality of the Year
GREAT PERFORMANCES
"Chaos and Creation Live at Abbey Road”
As KOOL 94.5 Morning Guy at the “Beatles specialist” radio station in the Valley of the Sun, we sometimes think we’ve heard every great song, know every great story and secret. It’s a genuine pleasure to learn that we haven’t, and then hear and learn something brand new… new facts, new stories, or new songs, and there’s plenty of all three in this Great Performances, PBS Special. And talking to a small gathered studio audience of about 50, rather than to the camera makes us feel we’re at Abbey Road too. How did the Beatles mix more than four tracks into just a four track tape recorder? We watch Paul McCartney, who shows us “the layering technique” on the Studer four track.
Paul McCartney scared? Could that be? At the very beginning of this 2006 show, Paul opens with the story, and exactly what producer George Martin told him and John Lennon in this Abbey Road Studio four decades ago, naming the classic million selling single that he says shows his voice was actually quivering. And, points to and shows us where everyone was standing at those moments.
Not just McCartney’s Grammy nominated and well received 2005 songs from “Chaos And Creation In The Backyard” are new, but at least to me, one of America’s first Beatle fans, one old song was new as well. Paul calls it “the very first song the Beatles ever recorded. Actually this was pre-Beatles.” Paul says they paid a pound each for studio recording costs, and each member got to keep the “shellac recording” for a week, before handing it to the next guy.
And guess which music appreciator cares enough to own, care for, show us, and then play Elvis Presley’s original stand up acoustic bass once gently plucked by Bill Black on national television? Who else? His sort of impromptu “Heartbreak Hotel” is a nice part of this show. Don’t worry. If you like the best known Beatle songs, they’re well represented, from “Strawberry Fields,” to “Blackbird,” to what Paul calls “the old lady in new clothes,” an updated “Lady Madonna.” And with help from the studio audience Paul shows how, and then creates, a spontaneous new Abbey Road Studio song to wrap up his performance.
Sometimes during the performance, I couldn’t help but remember I’m looking at one of the wealthiest performers to ever live, and once again realizing that he certainly doesn’t perform because he needs the money or fame. He writes, produces, plays, and performs because he loves to! And it shows.
Great Performances "Paul McCartney: Chaos and Creation Live at Abbey Road "airs
Monday, Dec. 31 at 10 p.m.
on Eight.
