certainlyathrill

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Happy birthday to Jim McCartney's beloved red piece of meat, Donovan's beautiful two-headed monster, Martha the dog's adored owner, Yoko Ono's great threat. Happy Birthday to Mike McCartney's tender older brother, George Harrison's older brother by nine whole months and the baby brother Ringo's Starr always wanted. Happy birthday to one of the only men Bob Dylan considered a threat, Stevie Wonder's friend, Brian Wilson's admirer, the man who Derek Taylor briefly hated more than anybody else and the person who sent Dusty Springfield flowers in her time of need. Happy birthday to the guiding light in Stella McCartney's life, the man who fought a ram to defend his children and the man who let kids play with knives to teach them life skills. Happy birthday to the man who feels love so much that it comes out in all body tingles, who sees stonehenge as the heart chakra of the earth and who just really really likes buses. Happy birthday to the 1960s pin-up, the indie rock forerunner, the flop movie maker, the writer, the 1980s chew toy, the vegetarian advocate, the protester and the council lad from Liverpool who changed music forever.

Happy birthday to Linda McCartney's prince charming, John Lennon's extraordinary dear one. Happy birthday to today's Mozart, Yesterday's creator and everyones grandude.

Happy birthday to the Gemini who isn't just a Gemini, but a whole constellation.

Happy birthday Paul McCartney.

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orpheus was a poor boy, but he had a gift to give…

they’re so orpheus and eurydice that i couldn’t not draw them as hadestown!!

adding some close ups!

plus photo references from the show used !

and two of the songs i listened to on repeat whilst drawing…

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to anyone who doesn’t actually follow me and only sees my popular posts its really starting to look like my weird niche blog theme is drawing the beatles as children’s entertainment properties lmfao

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five solve the mystery of apple corps finances

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I finally watched the Rupert and the Frog song (We all Stand Together). I still see people (mostly older, mostly on Facebook) dunking on “the frog chorus” and it’s just so clearly an outdated notion for it to be lame for a musician to make content explicitly for children. It’s so common now for artists who’ve become parents to make something their kids will enjoy. Jack White sang a song with the muppets on Sesame Street because he loves his fucking kids. It’s so normal now.

I get where Mary Had a Little Lamb released as single by a rock band went down wrong .. but this is creative, whimsical content explicitly *for* kids. The SONG, in particular, is beautifully composed, imaginative. Lovely! I keep listening to it.

He was 20 years into his career. The Beatles were never Led Zeppelin. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around people still being so weird about this. He such a well rounded musician; it’s all like an exploration in another part of his creativity. There are elements of the classical composing that would come later… and the playful, experimenter who made Robber’s Ball (my beloved), McCartney II, the Fireman records.

But anyway, watching this today reminded me of this moment from Behind the Scenes of BBC Radio where someone presented Paul and Mike with their childhood Rupert book. The title page filled in by their parents reads “This book belongs to Paul McCartney and Michael McCartney”.

It was either Paul or Mike who said they didn’t get many gifts as kids and for Christmas they’d usually get one toy addressed to Paul and Michael from Father Christmas. It makes me really consider why this Rupert project was so important for him that he held onto it for 15 years, always sort of considering ideas for it. There were those RAM era songs that were specifically for the “Rupert project”. It comes up so much in the McCartney legacy book.

Then there’s the element of the frogs and his history with frogs, from growing the tadpoles in his own hand made frog pond in the backyard and checking on them every day until one day they were frogs that hopped away. Then there was the dark, frog killing episode that shocked his brother and he probably felt some shame about.

But here, in this story, there are guard frogs on duty protecting their mostly undisturbed world. Happy and content, it’s the frogs that create this magical chorus.

There’s even a father and son frog pair who’ve come to see this event that only happens every couple of hundred years.

The father is rather Jim McCartney-esque with his pipe and 1940s style hat and manner. There’s a moment where the son inadvertently annoys his father and instantly recoils like he’s about to get hit and momentarily it looks like the father is considering it but gets a hold of himself.

But later, wrapped up in the music together, the father hugs his son.

I don’t know what I’m saying exactly but I think there’s some exploration of his childhood here and something about Rupert and the frog chorus that’s particularly meaningful to him.

Maybe he’s reconciling the dark, frog killing episode of childhood with the vegetarian, animal lover he’d become by giving the frogs their own hero’s story. Rupert, Jim, the threat of violence, the presence of love, the frogs he loved but also was violent toward.. and music at the center of everything. Unifying, healing. We all stand together.

For anyone interested, the full BBC clip is here

The full Rupert short is here

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deeply funny to me that paul spent ages obsessed with jfk assassination conspiracies only for people to make an even more crazy conspiracy about HIM dying. like he couldn’t even be mad bc he’s a tinfoil hat wearer himself

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was so sure this would be a paul sweep but this is much funnier

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bugs except they’re vaguely modern teenagers au

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BANG !!! TRIPLE HOMICIDE !!!

was going for the patrick bateman look, de-blooded version below the cut. part 2 of paul as characters from his songs :)

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WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE !!

doing a little series of paul character drawings!! close up without the mask below the cut :)

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im actually on paul mccartneys side about everything he’s ever done because i too am the type of person who would annoy my bandmates so much that they divorce me and then annoy my bandmates in my second band so much that one of them nearly shoots me in my sleep

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if i was the casting director for the beatles biopics they would all be transgender. paul? tboy swag. george? he/they realness. ringo? post op transmasc. john? gorgeous beautiful trans woman. it’s what the people want and deserve

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part 2 of this !

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i’ll find you in every lifetime (threat)

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good grief !

(part 2)

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​he said look at my iconic contribution to my brother’s gay lore