"Goodnight Tonight"

On Monday, I did a post about "Wonderful Christmastime," off of the final Paul McCartney & Wings album, Back to the Egg. It reminded of another McCartney song from that time period. The Wikipedia entry:

Eager to release new material, Wings issued non-album dance single "Goodnight Tonight" b/w "Daytime Nighttime Suffering" in late March 1979 when it became a worldwide Top 5 hit. With the title a McCartney-ism for getting back to basics, the band considered Back to the Egg the beginning of a new era in their career. It was certainly not intended as their swan song.

Unfortunately, the critical reaction was not warm upon the album's release. Considered uninspired and directionless by many of its reviewers at the time - and to this day, Back to the Egg also sold beneath expectations, reaching #6 in the UK and #8 in the US with relatively short chart stays, although it went platinum. Its single releases "Old Siam, Sir," "Arrow Through Me," and "Getting Closer" were also small hits. Although many McCartney fans are devotees of Back to the Egg, it is still generally considered one of his least popular albums. It is interesting to note that Wings began and ended their studio career with their least successful projects.

That "non-album dance single" is no doubt one of those polarizing McCartney songs (like "Wonderful Christmastime"). Even while with The Beatles, certain McCartney tunes ("Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," "I'm Down," "She's Leaving Home," etc.) were either really loved or passionately hated. McCartney's music can definitely divide ranks of diehard Beatle fans into two. As for "Goodnight Tonight," I'm obviously in the camp with those who love it.

I really like McCartney's bass playing on this one. And I clearly remember being played on the radio. A lot.

Logansport revisited

I've had a new camera for about a month, so I've been revisiting some of my favorite little towns near Nacogdoches to retry some pictures. Logansport, Louisiana, is about sixty miles east of Nacogdoches, and very close to the Texas-Louisiana border. I was there a couple of months ago, and I love its little strip of old buildings. So, on a gray, drizzly morning, on the way to Natchitoches...

Texas Monthly skips the dog

I just received Austin-based Texas Monthly's 2007 Bum Steer issue. While it doesn't appear a single original thought went into designing the cover, I still chuckle every time I look at it:

The small print: "Yes, this is a photo illustration. If we don't say so, Dick Cheney will shoot us in the face."

As the editor acknowledges in the Editor's Letter, "...there are no original ideas in the magazine business; there are only good, worthwhile, creative riffs on original ideas."

The cover is obviously a parody of the iconic National Lampoon cover from January 1973 (one of the American Society of Magazine Editors' "Top 40 Magazine Covers of the Last 40 Years"):

"Little Saint Nick"

Saint Nick
Santa Claus and "the Beach Boys" appeared on MSNBC's Imus in the Morning program last week. They were there to promote Mike Love's "Santa's Going to Kokomo" single and video.

They did a bang-up job of recreating numerous Beach Boys classics, including "Little Saint Nick" (from 1964's The Beach Boys Christmas Album):



John Cowsill of The Cowsills
Watch someone's Christmas lights display to the tune of "Little Saint Nick":



See the real Beach Boys perform it here.

Playtime in the woods

This is one of the reasons it's nice to live in a small, college town like Nacogdoches. While on a walk at the S.F.A. Mast Arboretum,



I found what at first glance appeared to either be something out of The Blair Witch Project, or the work of a disturbed mind. It turned out to be something called "Tree Art." Who knew? It's reflective of the bohemian fringe around this part of East Texas. This one is particularly original and bizarre.
*TREE ART*
(Playtime in the woods)
TREES HAVE A LIFE FORCE, OR (ENERGY) THAT IS NURTURING. I like to recycle the organic life & create a "tree art" mixing in some of my paintings. I believe in cyclical time and this piece in the woods hopefully reflects that,

Mary Coronis
12/2006

Huntsville

Huntsville (68 miles N of Houston, 165 miles S of Dallas) is where Sam Houston was buried, and it is the home of Sam Houston State University. It is also the County Seat of Walker County, in East Texas.

jasoneppink
The Sam Houston Statue (on I-45) is 67-feet. The life size model can be seen at the Sam Houston State University library.

pixels.in.my.head
My pictures:
Town Theater


Laura (1944), Paradise Canyon (1935)
Cafe Texan

The Roche Building
"Sam Houston Whittling Sight", a.k.a. The Roche Building
downtown murals:

Huddie William "Lead Belly" Ledbetter (he spent some time in a Huntsville prison)

“Wonderful Christmastime”

"Wonderful Christmastime" was recorded during the making of the final Paul McCartney & Wings album, Back to the Egg (1978). The B-side of the single was "Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reggae." There are some who don't like it. For example, at the Wikipedia page for the song (it's been edited out in the twelve hours since I've posted this):

In Japan, there have been numerous attempts to ban the "Wonderful Christmastime" due to the song being directly attributed to 143 separate cases of suicide. In 1987, one Osaka radio station reportedly played the track back-to-back for three days straight, in the lead up to Christmas. Tokyo Police Department reported 57 fatalities during the 1986-87 period alone. A Japanese government spokesman was popularly quoted as saying that "the syncopated synthesizer appears to send people scrambling for the fish knife."

BUT...I've always loved it. McCartney must have a knack for writing Christmas songs. Witness the 1967 ("Christmas Time Is Here Again"), 1968 ("Happy Christmas, Happy New Year"), and 1969 ("This is to Wish You a Merry, Merry Christmas") Beatle fan club recordings for evidence. What struck me about the video for the song is how happy McCartney seems. Appearing also is the final incarnation of Wings. Good times.