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Top ten great Paul McCartney songs you’ve probably never heard

Paul’s new album arrives today and I thought it would interesting to showcase some of his best songs that never seem to show up on greatest hits collections yet are some of his best.

“Return to Pepperland” is one of my favorites and you’ve probably never heard this one before because he decided not to release it! It only shows up on bootlegs, which is a real shame. Groups like Jellyfish and Klaatu spent time trying to sound Beatle-ish in the way Paul would write, and here is one of the most Beatle-ish songs ever. It was done in 1988, twenty years after the “Yellow Submarine” film, and Paul asks in the song why we’re still fighting for peace and love — but in a very fun way. Some of the lyrics are obvious (“Twenty years later, who would have guessed / Nelson Mandela still under arrest”) and some parts just have him quacking. Seriously. Backward tapes and great fun. One of my favorites.

“Back on My Feet” was the B-side to a single in Britain but never got attention here. It’s a great song written with Elvis Costello, and Elvis really helped Paul put out some great songs. I can imagine Elvis saying, “Nice melody, Paul, but let’s spend a bit more than five minutes on the lyrics, shall we?”

“You Want Her To” is another McCartney/Costello collaberation and Elvis sings his bits in the song as well. Clever song, some interesting time changes, and then a strange little fade out that sounds like the song was just taken over by a big band that’s walking out the door.


“Ever Present Past” is a great song from his excellent album “Memory Almost Full.” He did a nice video for it as well.

“I Lie Around” was the B-side to “Live and Let Die” but it was a Wings song where Paul let Denny Laine handle the lead vocals until the end when it needed someone to sing higher. It’s obvious when Paul kicks in. (Oh, except Paul gets to do his Elvis Presley impersonation at the start when he says “all over the place.”) A great, fun tune.

“English Tea” is one of those typical Paul songs that could have fit on the White Album. “Nanny bakes fairy cakes…”

“Fine Line” is from the album “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard” — a great, overlooked album. (“English Tea” is also on that album.) Catchy hook!

“This One” was a single but it never got higher than 95 or so, which is a shame. It was a hit in Britain. This is from the album “Flowers in the Dirt.”

“Give Ireland Back to the Irish” was protest single Paul rushed out after Bloody Sunday in 1972. It was the first Wings single. As you may expect, British airways banned it and American audiences weren’t too keen on it, but it’s really a great song!

And, finally, one of my favorite McCartney songs, from the album “Ram” — this nonsensical ditty is just plain old great fun. Paul must have been “smoking monkberry moon delight” indeed.

I’ll probably change my mind about this list over and over again, but hey, hope you enjoyed these.

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No reason indeed

Steve Sack
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How you can help fighting tyranny while being entertained

OK, you know that groups like the ACLU and Pro Publica are filing lawsuits and doing everything they can to fight Trump’s lawlessness, right? Well, if you’re not the kind to want to just give your money to these groups, how about buying a book with great science fiction and fantasy stories from some of the genre’s top writers?

You’ll get some wonderful stories to read so your money is well spent. Since every one of the authors in this book have donated their stories, all the profits go to the ACLU and Pro Publica! See? You’re not only getting some great entertainment, but you’re doing some real good!

This collection includes my humorous story “Horseman, Horseman, Horseman & Horseman, Attorneys at Law” wherein the four horsemen stand up against Satan’s plan. (Any resemblance to the ACLU is unintentional.)

Click here to order your book now!: Ebook or Paperback.

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Here we go again

David Horsey

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What Democrats need to do in 2029

Assuming Democrats take over the Presidency and Congress in 2028 (which is likely), we need our own 2029 agenda to once more clean up the mess Republicans leave us.

Some things will be difficult–such as convincing our allies that we can be trusted when we sign treaties. They’ll say “Yeah, but if another Republican gets elected in four years, how do we know they won’t rip it up like Trump did with the Iran treaty?” and they’ll have a very good point.

cartoon by Mike Luckovich

But mostly, we need to stop trying to reach across the aisle. We need to use the legal tricks the GOP has used under Trump to just do what needs to be done and not being wimps about it.

And there’s a lot that can be done to fix our democracy without resorting to Constitutional amendments.

Here’s the main Agenda to Save Democracy as I see it:

  1. Increase the Supreme Court to 13 members–one for each federal district.
  2. Require all Supreme Court members to follow the same Judicial Code of Ethics that all other federal judges must follow.
  3. Install the Wyoming Rule, which will increase the House of Representatives and make each House member more accurately represent the approximately same amount of people.
  4. Require members of Congress and the Supreme Court to place all investments in a blind trust so they cannot vote on things that would directly benefit them.
  5. Establish a bipartial committee to draw district lines to eliminate gerrymandering.
  6. Make Puerto Rico a state and redraw DC to only include the federal buildings where no one lives.

Those are needed to fix democracy. Of course, there are other things they should do as well that are needed, such as establish medicare for all, increase taxes on billionaires, cut off the cap on social security so the very rich pay their proper amount, abolish ICE and stop treating minor immigration violations as if they were serious felonies, make it easier to vote, raise the minimum wage, codify the right to an abortion, and so on. You know–all the things a majority of Americans support. The moderate positions that Republicans keep calling radical socialism.

Then we can work on Constitutional amendments that are needed, such as eliminating the Electoral College and establishing that corporations aren’t people and money isn’t speech.

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The Trumpster Fire

Clay Bennett

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“The President SHALL be removed for treason”

The thing to remember is that our Constitution DOES have a provision that would solve this Trump problem.

It says clearly “The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

SHALL be removed. Not “may be removed.”

The problem is, of course, that Republicans don’t care what the Constitution says. The founders never imagined that we’d have such corruption that our Congress wouldn’t obey the Constitution and remove a President who has committed “high crimes” (felonies).

As I’ve said before, the only way to stop this is to vote only for Democrats, even if it’s just for local dog catcher. And if you refuse to vote or vote third party, you’re part of the problem.

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Sowing Doubt

Pat Bagley

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Why go to the moon?

by guest blogger Raymond E. Feist

Science! Why go to the moon? Again?

In the best tradition of Mark Twain, a lot of people saying, “Why are we spending all that money to go to the moon when we could be [fill in the blank]?”

If you’re under 50, Apollo is history to you. If you’re under 20, any memory you have of the Space Shuttle is a kid’s memory.

Science roughly falls into two areas of research: targeted and pure (or general). Most people understand targeted: we must cure a disease, solve an environmental problem, come up with a better whatever. And of course all the politics that revolves around it.

Pure research is 100% curiosity. “How do things work?” “Why does that happen?” “What makes that work/not work?” People who are by nature curious pretty much don’t get people who are not curious, and vice versa. Most writers are curious, and usually become encyclopedia of trivia, or as my father would say, “A compendium of useless information.” It’s why I have opinions on a whole lot of things I am no expert in, and why I welcome being corrected on facts when I screw up, which frequently is the case.

One thing that may not be obvious in the case of general research is it often provides us with unexpected benefits. Because early astronauts have different issues getting in an out of gear while in space, we all now have velcro. And there are many things we all take for granted that came to us from the need to solve problems getting people to the moon and back. It’s safe to say we would not have a certain type of microchip, cell phones, and smart appliances if not for space research. Just like we wouldn’t have the internet if it hadn’t been for the Cold War, or Viagra if a smooth muscle heart medicine hadn’t shown an unexpected effect on male subjects.

In other words, often we get surprised by pure research .

So we go to the moon because we’re curious and want to know how the universe works, because we’ve learned a lot about solar radiation, climate change, the history of the universe, and a whole lot of other stuff that in the long run benefits us all.

IMHO, one might also ask why are we spending money bombing Iran instead of subsidizing the health care of millions of people?

Many equivalents exist, many of the false.

The best answer I saw was a clip Stephen Colbert showed last night. A youngster with a go-pro on his helmet was outside the Kennedy Space Center watching the launch and a local reporter asked him why he wanted to be there. His answer, “Because we’re going to the fucking moon!”

History.

Raymond E. Feist is the author of more than 36 novels, including the Rifwar Cycle and the Empire trilogy co-authored by Janny Wurts. Feist has been writing for 45 years and has more than 20 million books published world-wide in over a dozen languages.

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The original “No Kings” protest

Clay Bennett