New from McCartney, Dylan, Nelson and others

Now with Beyoncé Knowles in a statement-making mood, Kanye West turning his The Life Of Pablo album into a constantly changing art installation, with pop divas in a constant battle over reaching higher and higher notes and pop beats that sound more and more alike, I am happy that there are sounds, solid, familiar but made new, like these that we can turn to.

Honestly speaking, these releases got me thinking of Christmas. The thought was, will somebody treat me to these goodies come December or will I have to gift myself?  Whatever the answer, I can tell you it will be money well-spent because no amount of streaming is going to provide that thrill which I am sure will come from listening to and owning these albums by Paul McCartney and other gentlemen singers of a certain age.

First off the list are The Art of McCartney and Pure McCartney. I guess we might call them career retrospectives. But the 73-year-old ex-Beatle remains very active with the new stuff. Remember, he has recorded with Kanye and Rihanna and created music for a video game called Destiny. He is also set to appear in the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie. And for all we know, a new album of originals might already be in the works. So I do not think it right to consider these albums as his retirement tributes. These are just fantastic collections created for his fans to enjoy.

Pure McCartney is a compilation of McCartney’s original recordings out of the Beatles. This means mostly the hits by Wings and his solos, plus some important duets.  Among the songs included are Jet, Silly Love Songs, Mull Of Kintyre, Band On The Run, My Love, Live And Let Die, Goodnight Tonight, Pipes Of Peace, No More Lonely Nights, Ebony And Ivory with Stevie Wonder, Say Say Say with Michael Jackson and Maybe I’m Amazed.

The Art of McCartney is another gorgeous set made up of recordings of McCartney compositions as performed by various artists. And it includes those that he wrote with John Lennon while they were still with the Beatles. Maybe I’m Amazed by Billy Joel; Things We Said Today by Bob Dylan; Band On The Run by Heart; The Long And Winding Road by Yusuf Islam who is better known in music circles as Cat Stevens; My Love by Harry Connick Jr.; Wanderlust by Brian Wilson; Bluebird by Corinne Bailey Ray; Yesterday by Willie Nelson; When I’m 64 by Barry Gibb; Every Night by Jamie Cullum; Listen To What The Man Said by Owl City; So Bad by Smokey Robinson and many more.

Bob Dylan, 75, the folksinger-turned-crooner for the Grammy-nominated Shadows In The Night is still in the American songbook mood. His new album is Fallen Angels and like Shadows, it is made up of songs recorded by Frank Sinatra. Given the vast American songbook catalogue, Dylan can just keep doing this year after year while still staying the folk legend.

 He is in a lighter mood with more popular songs in this one like Young At Heart, Maybe You’ll Be There, Polka Dots And Moonbeams, All The Way, Skylark, Nevertheless, All Or Nothing At All, On A Little Street In Singapore, It Had To Be You, Melancholy Mood, That Old Black Magic and Come Rain Or Come Shine. 

Then there is also Summertime, sub-titled Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin by the marvelously 83-year-old country music legend. Like Dylan or of course, Sinatra, he has such a marvelous way with words that I now have this album on repeat mode on Spotify and loving every bit of it. And still I can’t wait to get my hands on the physical CD. Included are Our Love Is Here To Stay, Someone To Watch Over Me, Embraceable You with Sheryl Crow, Somebody Loves Me, I Got Rhythm and others.

 Incidentally, McCartney, Dylan and Nelson are not the only 70-something plus pop idols, who released new product this year. There are also albums by Paul Simon, 74, Stranger To Stranger with all new materials and already in the hit charts; Eric Clapton, 71, with old and new covers in I Still Do and a grand career retrospective video and CD of Slow Hand at 70 Live at the Royal Albert Hall and Neil Young, 70, with Earth. This is a live recorded album featuring the music of Young both old, After The Gold Rush and new works performed with nature and animal sounds together with his new band called The Promise of the Real which coincidentally includes Lukas and Micah Nelson, sons of the venerable Willie.

Now, whoever said that 60 is the new 40 now has another think coming. At the rate these legends are working, he will soon have to amend that into 70 is the new 40.