Can you believe it? My favorite Beatle, Paul McCartney, turns 65 today and has just released a new album, Memory Almost Full.
As he is now a "senior citizen", he has made major changes with the release of this new work; after 45 years with the venerable company EMI, he has moved to the new emerging label Hear Music. Hear Music has made Memory Almost Full available as both a compact disc and a digital download. McCartney has received lots of publicity and airtime thanks to the promotion of his work at Starbucks stores. Additionally, the music video has premiered on YouTube. This 65-year-old youngster is not nostalgically looking back to his days as a Beatle but is astutely utilizing and maximizing new technology and new distribution systems to expose and promote his music.
The Library invites you to not only sample McCartney's music but read about his life and work.
He was quite prescient in his song "When I'm 64."
"When I get older,
Losing my hair,
Many years from now.
Will you still be sending me a Valentine,
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
If I've been out
Till quarter to three,
would you lock the door?
Will you still need me,
Will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four?
You be all the true
And if you say
I could be handy
Mending a fuse,
When your lights are gone.
You can knit a sweater by the fireside.
Sunday morning go for a ride.
Doing the garden,
Digging the weeds,
who could ask for more?
Will you still need me,
will you still feed me,
when I'm sixty-four?
Every summer we can rent a cottage in the isle of Wight
If it's not too dear.
Grandchildren on our knees
Vera, Chuck and Dave.
Send me a postcard,
Drop me a line,
Stating point of view.
Indicate precisely what you mean to say.
Yours sincerely wasting away.
Give me your answer,
Fill in a form,
mine for ever more.
And you still need me,
you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four."