Just this day, Last Week I had the best time of my life:
Paul Mccartney performed in Yankee Stadium and brought me back to a time I had always longed to live in. If people knew me well, they would know I am a big fan of the sixties in the US. The sixties was an important time globally as well, but we have to remember that since the 1900s the world revolves around US narcissism.
The sixties were a time of war and peace, phew thanks Tolstoy. Europe was finally leaving its atrocious colonial mess in Africa, Asia and the Americas, well wth! pretty much the whole world. The US was involved in one of its longest wars: Vietnam War, and it was the first war to be broadcast on TV, this brought so much awareness to the public watching these images that people, especially the young and idealist as usual, started coming together to stop the war, inspired by Mohandas Gandhi and later Nelson Mandela, people started using non-violent ways to promote peace and stop the war in Vietnam. They also started using drugs lol. On the inside though, the country was dealing with civil rights upheavals and cultural awareness including racial, feminist and queer consciousness. in other words THE 60S WERE A BIG DEAL BUDDY.
There was so much going in and outside of the country that musicians, painters,writers and other performing artists (lets not forget that avant garde movement I am beginning to understand from my theatre professor) had plenty of inspiration to take from. oh, an jazz, the sixties were the decade for Jazz, and swing, and soul, and r&B, and "all that good stuff" like a classmate used to say in my Ethnomusicology class.
It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. well not the worst, but it was very dark. Simon and Garfunkel are from the sixties and they are one of my favorite artists. Their music is tainted by the economic and social mood of the time in the US, its dark and sometimes it can come off as sad and lonely. Even the artistic and improvisational-driven arts are criticized in their music. Their music though, like the times, longed for the end of the war and the establishment of peace. Their music doesn't sound as optimistic as The Beatles' style yet it is upbeat and allows for musical exploration and acoustic percussion rhythms. The musical artists from the 60s were achieving a personal and spiritual awareness I have not often seen in previous decades. Maybe the drugs helped but, these artists were expressing a constant an exploration of ourselves, they were asking us to look to the East for responses, and to look into ourselves and analyze us within this capitalistic, egocentric driven society taking over the world. I guess, this is why these artists' visions are still relevant to me today, I have been kind of going through the same questions for the past few years.
The Beatles are definitely my favorite band in the world (I feel so white when I say this, ha) They were living those times musically, they were writing love songs, they were explorers because they were taking it all in. They took the sorrow from the blues in the US and added depth to their repertoire. They borrowed the exotic and the holy from India and discovered a new way to play Rock & Roll.
Last Saturday, just being there, while Paul Mccartney played all my favorite songs and most of his hits ( He played a total of 33 songs) including I Saw Her Standing There (in which guest Billy Joel played the piano), Paperback Writer, Helter skelter, Back in the USSR, Let it Be, Yesterday, Magical Mystery Tour, Ive got a feeling, Drive my Car, Something (he played it with an ukulele to pay a homage to Harrison) and my personal favorites: I'm Looking Through You, and All My Loving, Hey Jude, Blackbird among many othersss.
He also publicly endorsed Barack Obama in his song"sing the changes( the fireman)" He was showing his picture fading away in the background. ha, obama 2012?
During Give Peace a Chance, he kept showing a peace sign, and that with the constant pot smokers around me truly made me feel like I was back in the sixties lol!) I remember crying at least three times, the first time during All My Loving because this song reminds me of my grandmother. The second time during his song about John Lennon, and the third time during Something which he played in homage of George Harrison (yes, i know Harrison wrote it already.)
It was a magical night.
SEtlist for July 16th http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/paul-mccartney/2011/yankee-stadium-new-york-ny-bd3413a.html
