The Fab Four continues to make headlines today, albeit not as a whole band.
First off, Paul McCartney's been busily stirring up some hype for his upcoming album
Memory Almost Full. McCartney revealed the tracklisting this week, and his
website features some written explanations of the album's themes. "It's a very personal record," he says, "and a lot of it is retrospective, drawing from memory, like memories from being a kid, from Liverpool, and from summers gone. The album is evocative, emotional, rocking, but I can't really sum it up in one sentence."
Starting June 4th, Starbucks patrons can pick up the disc on their morning coffee runs.
Memory will be McCartney's first release on the Starbucks-backed record label Hear Music, and his 21st solo album to date. The tracklisting is: "Dance Tonight"; "Ever Present Past"; "See Your Sunshine"; "Only Mama Knows"; "You Tell Me"; "Mister Bellamy"; "Gratitude"; "Vintage Clothes"; "That Was Me"; "Feet In The Clouds"; "House Of Wax"; "End Of The End"; and "Nod Your Head."
Moving on to John Lennon - or, more specifically - his eldest son... Julian Lennon has sold a sizable economic stake in the compositions cowritten by his dad for the Beatles.
Primary Wave Music Publishing will now control a portion of the royalties generated by the Beatles catalog. No one will talk about how much money is actually changing hands here, but we bet it's
A LOT. When Courtney Love sold 50% of Kurt Cobain's music-publishing rights to Primary Wave, she netted herself a cool $50 million.
Julian is set to benefit similarly, and he apparently hopes this good luck with transfer over to his inconsistent music career. "Partnering with Primary Wave provides me with a great team of supportive music professionals whose experience I can tap into as I continue to produce and record music," he stated. "I felt it was the appropriate time to take on a partner for both my interest in my fathers legendary music and for my future music endeavors." Incidentally, it's been 17 years since Julian has had a hit in the UK, and 22 years since he cracked the Top 20 on this side of the pond.
Hey Jude, don't make it bad. Take your dad's songs.... and sell 'em for a bunch of money.
