As a kid in the ‘80s, I found the idea of a second generation of Beatles fascinating because The Beatles themselves were so talented and intriguing. Hearing that Julian Lennon, John’s oldest son, played drums in a band called Quasar was exciting to me. I couldn’t wait to hear them, but nothing surfaced…
Jason LeValley
Source link
Last week, a new song titled “Primrose Hill” hit the music scene, causing quite a stir. It wasn’t just any release; this song came from James McCartney and Sean Ono Lennon. That’s right, the sons of the legendary Lennon-McCartney duo from The Beatles have teamed up to create music.
James McCartney, the son of Paul McCartney, and Sean Ono Lennon, the son of John Lennon, have certainly inherited some formidable musical genes. The collaboration draws inevitable attention due to their famous last names. “Primrose Hill” delivers a dose of nostalgia, wrapped in a modern melody, that pays homage to their fathers’ iconic sound.
James and Sean bear more than a passing resemblance to their fathers, which only adds to the allure. Sean, born in 1975, embarked on his musical journey in the 1990s. His career has been eclectic, collaborating with his mother, Yoko Ono, and various artists like Cibo Matto. His recent work, as per Rolling Stone, offers a “genreless wash of instrumental music.”
Two years younger, James McCartney began by contributing to his parents’ music projects in the late 1990s. However, his solo career didn’t start until the following decade. On Instagram, he revealed that “Primrose Hill” was inspired by a vivid childhood memory in Scotland. He describes the song as a journey to finding a significant other, wrapped in the warmth of a summer’s day.
Paul McCartney, proud of his son’s work, promoted “Primrose Hill” on his Facebook page, sending his best to Sean Ono Lennon. Despite the heavyweight last names, the song’s performance on Spotify was modest, with less than 40,000 listens in its first five days.
While it’s easy to be skeptical about children of celebrities leveraging their lineage, this collaboration feels different. “Primrose Hill” isn’t trying to shake the world; it’s more about connection and continuity. It stands as a tribute to a storied family history in music, reflecting the gentle spirit of James’s father, Paul.
The collaboration between James McCartney and Sean Ono Lennon is not just a musical novelty. It is a continuation of a legacy. While they navigate the giant shadows cast by their fathers, they also carve out their own niches in the music industry.
Their work begs the question: What does it mean to follow in such famous footsteps? For James and Sean, it seems to be about respect for the past but also making their own artistic statements. “Primrose Hill” serves as a bridge between generations, inviting listeners to appreciate the roots of its creation while enjoying the fresh fruits it bears.
Source: “A new Lennon-McCartney collab has dropped — but this time, it’s by the Beatles’ sons” — NPR
WTF
Source link
NEW YORK – One of the country’s leading artist residency programs, MacDowell, has awarded a lifetime achievement prize to Yoko Ono. The groundbreaking artist, filmmaker and musician is this year’s recipient of the Edward MacDowell Medal, an honor previously given to Stephen Sondheim and Toni Morrison among others.
“There has never been anyone like her; there has never been work like hers,” MacDowell board chair Nell Painter said in a statement Sunday. “Over some seven decades, she has rewarded eyes, provoked thought, inspired feminists, and defended migrants through works of a wide-ranging imagination. Enduringly fresh and pertinent, her uniquely powerful oeuvre speaks to our own times, so sorely needful of her leitmotif: Peace.”
Ono’s son, Sean Ono Lennon, said in a statement that the medal was “an incredible honor.”
“The history and list of past recipients is truly remarkable. It makes me very proud to see her art appreciated and celebrated in this way,” he said.
Ono, 91, has made few public appearances in recent years and is not expected to attend the July awards ceremony, at the MacDowell campus in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Ono’s music manager, David Newgarden, will accept the award on her behalf.
Ono first became known as part of the avant-garde Fluxus movement of the 1960s, then reached international fame after meeting John Lennon, to whom she was married from 1969 until his death, in 1980. Their many collaborations included the songs “Give Peace a Chance,” “Imagine” and “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” the basis for “War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko,” this year’s winner of the Oscar for best animated short film.
Over the past 40 years, Ono has had a busy career as a visual and recording artist, her albums including “Season of Glass,” “Starpeace” and “Take Me to the Land of Hell.” She was recently the subject of a career retrospective at London’s Tate Modern.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Hillel Italie, Associated Press
Source link
LOS ANGELES — Most of us are fairly well informed about the more high-profile categories at the Oscars. It’s often harder to find some of the other films being celebrated.
So to help get you Oscar ready, here’s a little love to the films up for Best Animated Short.
“Letter to a Pig” involves a Holocaust survivor sharing his traumatic story with students and how hearing what happened to him affects one of the kids in the class.
“This is a unique mixed media that I developed for this film that integrates segments of live action with hand-drawn animation on paper, frame by frame,” said writer/director Tal Kantor. “So we did film actors in a green screen studio. It’s just two films in one film, basically.”
War is also a theme in “War is Over!” inspired by the music of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Their son Sean is one of the executive producers.
“The idea was to re-frame a song that was fairly famous, that most people knew already, so it was actually hard to figure out how to bring a new element to it with the film,” said Sean Lennon. “And then when the song comes, it’s sort of re-framed in a new context. So we hope that it succeeded. And it seems that it has.”
The story is told as two soldiers on opposite sides of a conflict play chess, with the help of a carrier pigeon. Neither soldier has any idea who he’s playing.
“At the end of the film, we hope people are left with this idea that no matter how much you think you’re an enemy of another person, that maybe there’s a path to peace,” said writer/director Dave Mullins.
“Pachyderme” takes on the harrowing subjects of incest and abuse and how a little girl copes with the pain. Its filmmakers say their movie deals with the monsters of everyday life and childhoods stolen.
“Ninety-Five Senses” looks back on one elderly man recalling each of his senses with the little time he has left to still enjoy them. This was made by the people behind “Napoleon Dynamite.”
“I think you’re expecting ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ and then you’re getting something so different. And that’s the surprise and the twist. And Chris, our writer, created this beautiful screenplay that’s so poignant and human,” said co-director Jerusha Hess.
The 96th Oscars, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, begins at 7 p.m. ET | 4 p.m. PT, an hour earlier than past years, followed by an all-new episode of “Abbott Elementary.”
Copyright © 2024 OnTheRedCarpet.com. All Rights Reserved.
OTRC
Source link
Today in History
Today is Sunday, Oct. 9, the 282nd day of 2022. There are 83 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 9, 2009, President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for what the Norwegian Nobel Committee called “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
On this date:
In 1888, the public was first admitted to the Washington Monument.
In 1910, a coal dust explosion at the Starkville Mine in Colorado left 56 miners dead.
In 1936, the first generator at Boulder (later Hoover) Dam began transmitting electricity to Los Angeles.
In 1946, the Eugene O’Neill drama “The Iceman Cometh” opened at the Martin Beck Theater in New York.
In 1962, Uganda won autonomy from British rule.
In 1967, Marxist revolutionary guerrilla leader Che Guevara, 39, was summarily executed by the Bolivian army a day after his capture.
In 1975, Soviet scientist Andrei Sakharov (AHN’-dray SAHK’-ah-rawf) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1985, the hijackers of the Achille Lauro (ah-KEE’-leh LOW’-roh) cruise liner surrendered two days after seizing the vessel in the Mediterranean. (Passenger Leon Klinghoffer was killed by the hijackers during the standoff.)
In 2001, in the first daylight raids since the start of U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan, jets bombed the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. Letters postmarked in Trenton, New Jersey, were sent to Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy; the letters later tested positive for anthrax.
In 2004, a tour bus from the Chicago area flipped in Arkansas, killing 15 people headed to a Mississippi casino.
In 2006, Google Inc. announced it was snapping up YouTube Inc. for $1.65 billion in a stock deal.
In 2010, Chile’s 33 trapped miners cheered and embraced each other as a drill punched into their underground chamber where they had been stuck for an agonizing 66 days.
Ten years ago: Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was sentenced in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, to 30 to 60 years in prison following his June 2012 conviction on 45 counts of sexual abuse of boys. Future Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousufzai (mah-LAH’-lah yoo-SOOF’-zeye), a 15-year-old Pakistani girl who had dared to advocate education for girls and criticize the Taliban, was shot and seriously wounded by a militant gunman.
Five years ago: Declaring, “The war on coal is over,” EPA chief Scott Pruitt said he would sign a new rule overriding the Clean Power Plan, an effort from the Obama administration to limit carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. ESPN suspended anchor Jemele Hill for two weeks for making political statements on social media; Hill had referred to President Donald Trump as a “white supremacist” in a series of tweets. The bodies of 100-year-old Charles Rippey and his 98-year-old wife Sara were found in the ruins of their Northern California home; they were among the victims of two deadly wildfires in the region.
One year ago: Jonathan Toebbe, a Navy nuclear engineer with access to military secrets, was arrested in West Virginia along with his wife Diana; the Justice Department said Toebbe was charged with trying to pass information about the design of American nuclear-powered submarines to someone he thought represented a foreign government but who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent. (The couple withdrew guilty pleas in August 2022 after a judge rejected plea agreements; they are awaiting trial.) Texas A&M stunned top-ranked Alabama 41-38 to end the Crimson Tide’s winning streak at 19 games. California became the first state to say large department stores must display products like toys and toothbrushes in gender-neutral ways.
Today’s Birthdays: Retired MLB All-Star Joe Pepitone is 82. Former Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., is 81. C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb is 81. R&B singer Nona Hendryx is 78. Singer Jackson Browne is 74. Nobel Peace laureate Jody Williams is 72. Actor Gary Frank is 72. Actor Richard Chaves is 71. Actor Robert Wuhl is 71. Actor-TV personality Sharon Osbourne is 70. Actor Tony Shalhoub is 69. Actor Scott Bakula is 68. Musician James Fearnley (The Pogues) is 68. Actor John O’Hurley is 68. Writer-producer-director-actor Linwood Boomer is 67. Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Mike Singletary is 64. Actor Michael Paré is 64. Jazz musician Kenny Garrett is 62. Rock singer-musician Kurt Neumann (The BoDeans) is 61. Movie director Guillermo del Toro is 58. Former British Prime Minister David Cameron is 56. Singer P.J. Harvey is 53. Movie director Steve McQueen (Film: “12 Years a Slave”) is 53. World Golf Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam is 52. Actor Cocoa Brown is 50. Country singer Tommy Shane Steiner is 49. Actor Steve Burns is 49. Rock singer Sean Lennon is 47. Actor Randy Spelling is 44. Christian hip-hop artist Lecrae is 43. Actor Brandon Routh is 43. Actor Zachery Ty Bryan is 41. Actor Spencer Grammer is 39. Comedian Melissa Villasenor is 35. Actor Tyler James Williams is 30. Country singer Scotty McCreery (TV: “American Idol”) is 29. Actor Jharrel Jerome is 25.