Friday, September 26, 2008

I buried Paul? No!

It's weird, this music story that isn't a music story. I knew I had written about this before, so I searched Empoprise-MU...but it wasn't there. When I finally found my original post, I remembered why it wasn't in Empoprise-MU:

This really didn't belong in the music blog. In my view (though others may not concur), it doesn't necessarily belong under the religion tag (though I placed it there). It's more a political than a religious issue.

"This" was Omar Bakri Muhammad's statement that "the sacrifice operatives [would] be waiting for" Paul McCartney if he proceeded with plans for a Tel Aviv concert on September 25.

It's September 26, and Paul's not dead. McCartney played the concert, and PopEater reported that the set list included "Give Peace a Chance," and that he issued greetings of "shana tova" and "Ramadan kareem" to his audience.

Oh, and remember how I wrote about the Beatles being banned from Israel in 1965? Now people are saying that's not true:

Ahead of the concert, newspaper columnist Yossi Sarid, son of the Israeli official who allegedly banned the Beatles, went on a campaign to clear his father's name. Sarid claimed his father had nothing to do with the decision, and that it involved a more mundane feud between two Israeli concert promoters.

Sarid himself wouldn't be attending the concert, saying that the tickets were too expensive. Well, THAT aspect of the music business hasn't changed.

P.S. re "Give Peace a Chance" - This isn't the only time that an ex-Beatle performed a song from another ex-Beatle. When I was grewing up, I had a single of John Lennon and the Elton John Band performing "I Saw Her Standing There." And I previously shared a video of McCartney singing "For You Blue". Although I don't expect him to perform "How Do You Sleep" any time soon.

Sphere: Related Content
blog comments powered by Disqus