Blog On

The Linda McCartney Story

I caught the cable TV movie called "The Linda McCartney Story" late last night. It was so touching! I needed a good cry. When "Stella" was on the tube, my little kitty "Stella" came and sat in my lap and purred. She's the kitten I'm keeping for sure now.

The movie is definitely worth a watch if you happen to run across it. It pretty much puts John, and of course Yoko, in a bad light, but I understood some of the business problems the Beatles faced when they split. It was as bad as any four-way divorce. And it had to do with money, not love. One could have guessed that. How much money is enough? There was some comment about the Stones getting a million dollar advance for an album, and the Beatles never got anything like that. Money gets to be like a drug addiction for some, I guess. Wouldn't know from any kind of personal experience, for sure. Barely paying bills, myself.

I could tell from the movie that the magic had kind of run its course by 1969. It would have been difficult for someone who didn't know the sequence to follow, because there were all sorts of flashbacks, and flash forwards. Linda hadn't been a vestal before Paul, and I didn't know that. Heather's photos in the German mag seem like a very small deal, in the big picture of love and life, and things people end up doing, just because.

It's amazing the Rolling Stones still tour and play and manage to get along for so many years now. Guess it's different with "mates" and wives. The movie showed that well. The way John and Paul were individuals, of course their perspective wives would be very different. I should do a search on Yoko. The actress that played her was more attractive--or had softer features than the real Yoko.

It's been at least a couple of years since I've been to Las Vegas, but the last time I went I saw a really good "look-alike" Beatles performance. They said at the time that they, the group I saw perform, had played the roles of the Beatles in the "Linda McCartney Story." I'd asked at the video store, wanting to rent it, but they said it wasn't available for rent. Somebody still owns the movie, so you have to catch it on the tube, if you can, as best as I know.

The moive had more contemporary 60s songs than Beatles' songs--I remember one from the Association in the movie music background. The "Beatles" didn't perform any Beatle songs in the movie. There were a couple of scences shot in the Abbey Road Studio, showing each and every one's growing frustration. The Beatles in the 1960s were the center of a magical time that's passed forever, and those of us who lived through it were very special too because we felt and lived that magic. When John was assassinated, the bubble of hope for some kind of reunion burst. When George, the youngest of the group, ya know, died, there was no point in even thinking about any kind of reunion. Perhaps they could still overlay some tracks and come up with "new" Beatles' music, but what studio engineers would find to pick from wouldn't be the Beatles' best work. Who knows, there may be legal paperwork we commoners will never know about.

The movie really made me feel for Paul's current divorce situation. I remember when he remarried, thinking, "It's okay. The man deserves to be in love. I hope he'll be happy."

He's still trying to be civil and dignified, but I think the press will always cause him problems so they can sell papers. Beatrix won't have the loving family life of her half-sisters, and half-brother, but I hope she's able to be with old Paulie enough to learn to love him as a human being.

If anyone knows of some great Beatles web site, leave me a link, will ya?

Rock on!