Jude
Hard Day's Night
Acting Naturally
Posts: 34
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Post by Jude on Jun 4, 2007 0:49:26 GMT -5
Memory Almost Full has been (officially released)! I have a lot of thoughts that I've wanted to share with this board with this album, but I respect the fact that not everyone is a dirty, rotten ol' music pirate (arr!) so I decided that I'd wait until the album was officially released. I really encourage everyone to go out and get this album. To me, it is a must have for fans of Sir Paul, and even more of a must have for any one who believes Paul was replaced. The album is full of personal lyrics . Sir Paul himself has called it a very personal album, so anyone interested in getting one step closer to figuring ol' Billy boy out, do yourself a huge favor and get this album NOW! I haven't really listened to a lot of his solo stuff, but some of the songs on this album could've easily been on The White Album or Abbey Road, IMO. Oh, and the third track to last will scare your pants off. I eagerly await people's responses to the album.
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Post by mommybird on Jun 4, 2007 13:48:23 GMT -5
I have to give it a listen, when I get the chance.
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Post by Doc on Jun 4, 2007 20:28:37 GMT -5
Memory Almost Full has been (officially released)! I have a lot of thoughts that I've wanted to share with this board with this album, but I respect the fact that not everyone is a dirty, rotten ol' music pirate (arr!) so I decided that I'd wait until the album was officially released. I really encourage everyone to go out and get this album. To me, it is a must have for fans of Sir Paul, and even more of a must have for any one who believes Paul was replaced. The album is full of personal lyrics . Sir Paul himself has called it a very personal album, so anyone interested in getting one step closer to figuring ol' Billy boy out, do yourself a huge favor and get this album NOW! I haven't really listened to a lot of his solo stuff, but some of the songs on this album could've easily been on The White Album or Abbey Road, IMO. Oh, and the third track to last will scare your pants off. I eagerly await people's responses to the album. Well, good, yes, I've been waiting, and digesting, and thinking on it, the lyrics and arrangements and stuff, and I thought it best to wait till after the official release, too. It is highly personal; I think "Time magazine" called it "an unavoidable pick" and that it was surprisingly personal and, well, they thought moody---but in a very good way. There was a remark about the recording ambiance being full of reverb or echo as if it was too create mystery. I do think MAF has a number of moods but I personally did NOT find it overly dark, or melancholy, maybe a spot or two; I think the mixing and mastering is without complaint; however I think it does present a variety of emotion up and down, a large measure of it is, to me, in a upward, sporting mode. It's not resigned or glum; and the mood fluctuates with the thoughts, or the intents. Mr. Bellamy is QUITE the art piece, and something very deep and worthy of inspection is going on in this multi-stylistic arrangement. I really dig the mysterious instrumental segment and the way the key of it, Eminor, segues into the A major of "Gratitude", implying a kinship of purpose between the two songs. The stately horns that comprise the Cm intro of Mr. Bellamy deliciously mislead the ear for what follows---the text and accompaniment of the body of the song--bouncing and angular, servicing a confessional soliloquy hinting at divine or appointed forces in Sir Paul's life. Bellamy is likely not an individual, or single man, rather possibly an organization with a purpose that has "nurtured" or protected Sir Paul's career pathway........and judging from the entrancing ear candy at the end, it is almost as if there is great mystery, yet inherent respect for it, on the part of Sir Paul..........A "belle ami" is a good friend, or a beautiful ally-----and from the song afterward, it is as if to say, I got BY with a little help--from My Belle Ami. My Belle Ami. Where have we heard this before?
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Post by JoJo on Jun 4, 2007 20:38:52 GMT -5
I think a few here have heard it, as I made it available.. I do have the actual cd on its way in a couple of days, and I do encourage people to buy cd's and support your favorite artists.. But I'd be disingenuous if I claimed to always do that..'nough said.. I have listened to his solo material, every single one and.. Im still digesting this one. I'll just say he gives much more information that putting "McCartney II" on an album, as 60IF mentioned. Common theme tho, very ambiguous, could be interpreted any number of ways, or perhaps just a few really, but he always has a "safe" meaning as one of them.
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Post by JoJo on Jun 4, 2007 20:48:03 GMT -5
Why here of course. Funny how we both had the same idea of "digesting" MAF at the same time Doc.. (I didn't read your post until after mine was posted)
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Post by Doc on Jun 4, 2007 22:44:41 GMT -5
Why here of course. Funny how we both had the same idea of "digesting" MAF at the same time Doc.. (I didn't read your post until after mine was posted) Synchronicity teaches.
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Post by fourthousandholes on Jun 5, 2007 10:31:25 GMT -5
music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=264337>1=7702 "© AP Paul McCartney Starbucks' Music Debuts With New McCartney CD Jun 4, 4:59 PM EST The Associated Press SEATTLE -- Caffeine junkies who go to Starbucks for their daily fix will get a nonstop dose of Paul McCartney's "Memory Almost Full" on Tuesday as the coffee company's new record label releases its first CD. Starbucks Corp. estimates that some 6 million people will be among the first to hear the new album as they line up for their lattes in more than 10,000 stores in 29 countries, where it will be playing on continuous loop throughout the day. It's a tactic most retailers would not likely attempt "probably for no other reason than not wanting to drive their workers insane," quipped Mike McGuire, a media analyst for Gartner Inc. Still, McGuire said Starbucks has proved to be adept at selling music and thinks it's smart for the company to tap into its vast customer base. "Let's face it. The energy has kind of gone out of the CD store launch," McGuire said, "so you've got to go where (consumers) are, which is typically buying coffee at a Starbucks." Starbucks co-founded its Hear Music label with Concord Music Group in March. McCartney was in the final stages of recording and mastering his latest set of songs when he signed a one-album deal with Hear Music, becoming the label's first artist. "Once we heard the album ... we just knew this was a phenomenal record," said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks' entertainment division. "It's such a reflection of his life and his career, I mean, the ups and downs and the recognition of really what a remarkable journey it has been. So it was really for us the perfect fit." Lombard said he hasn't set any sales targets for "Memory Almost Full" but that he'd be ecstatic if it ends up rivaling "Genius Loves Company," an album of Ray Charles duets that Starbucks helped sell when Concord released it in 2004. It won eight Grammy awards the following year and has sold more than 5.5 million copies worldwide. McCartney remains Hear Music's only artist, but Lombard said the label plans to sign two more artists this year and eight next year. Executives remain hopeful that McCartney will sign on for future albums. "The relationship is going very well between us, and it is our hope that Paul is feeling the same way," Lombard said. "When the time is right, we'll talk about what the next steps are going to be beyond this, but right now our focus is doing everything we can to ensure that 'Memory Almost Full' is an extraordinary success." A spokesman for McCartney declined to comment. The album will be sold at most Starbucks stores worldwide, in all major music retailers, and on Apple Inc.'s iTunes online music store, making it the first of McCartney's 21 solo albums to be released digitally. "paul/bill photos accompanying article: music.msn.com/music/gallery.aspx?gallery=13733
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Post by JoJo on Jun 6, 2007 16:52:32 GMT -5
The cd itself, don't know if this is how it's imprinted on the regular version, this is from the 2 cd edition: A very much beat up (abandoned really) Volkswagon Beetle.. Anything else?
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Jude
Hard Day's Night
Acting Naturally
Posts: 34
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Post by Jude on Jun 7, 2007 0:01:12 GMT -5
Say, are the extra songs any good?
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Post by beatlies on Jun 7, 2007 0:46:59 GMT -5
That black armchair with a pink "Paul MCCartney" cursive script is used in the advertising posters for the album.
"Hold you in his armchair" ... the Sgt. Pepper Shirley Temple armchair?
How old is that wooden toy VW beetle; it looks like an antique toy of an early model "hitlermobile" (the car was originally designed by Hitler). Does this brown miniature model VW toy date/originate from 1930s/WWII Germany?
There are penguins in "elementary" black and white painted on the artist's container of coloring brushes. The penguins look as if they could be dancing (a Hare Krishna dance?)
The horse looks like it could be a circus "Henry" horse from "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" on Sgt. Pepper.
Let me go on about the penguins:
There is a hidden black-and-white mirror Sgt. Pepper picture I found, in 2005, of two penguins kicking what appears to be a tiny head of Edgar Allen Poe like a soccer ball; their arms are outsretched and touching in a sort of teacup-holding or (Hare Krishna)dancing/singing-like way. I'm going public with it now for the first time. The picture is contained in the face of Sri Yukestewar Giri, a Hindu saint (upper left region of the cover). "Elementary" colors meaning chiaroscuro-like black-and-white illustration for this little scene, and the B&W non-color scheme stands out in the otherwise ultra-colorful psychedelical, technicolor colors of the Sgt. Pepper album cover.
Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna Man you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allen Poe
More possible clues in this: "Man you" = "Man U" the nickname of the famous Manchester United football team that got wiped out in the 1950s plane crash in Munich, West Germany, including possibly Matt Busby, who may have been replaced with an imposter. The penguins are playing football with EAP's head. This head/face resemble the face of Edgar Allen Poe that is in the Sgt. Pepper cover top row.
"You should have seen" = a near-sound-alike reference to the location of the face clue-trove, the face of "Y(o)uktestewar Giri."
Edgar Allen Poe wrote a novel called The Narrative of Arthur (= "author" pun?) Gordon Pym, whose narrative plays false/uncertain identity games between with "Arthur Gordon Pym" fictional identity and the insertion in the text of the actual identity of the author, Edgar Allen Poe, as a character. This novel features Liverpool, England as a prominent port-of-call for a ship that travels to the U.S. eastern seabord that is named the Penguin. There is another ship in the novel that figures promnently, called the Grampus (an old word for a killer whale, whcih eat penguins), and reminds me of the word for another sea mammal, the walrus. Also in the novel is a scene of a Penguin rookery where penguin eggs are laid on a mysterious and remote island. The Sgt. Pepper hidden picture I described above had the Penguins contained in what appear to be oval white eggs forming a background frame and setting for them.
What does all this mean? I am still trying to sort it out. It may take a few more readings of that Poe novel and finding new information that is still out there. I've got those lines of I Am The Walrus deciphered though ---there is an interlacing clue matrix going on between the hidden Sgt. Pepper pictures, the real-world celebrity imposter covert operations, and the cipher song lyrics. So for all this I say "Eureka!" and urge you to look at that face of Sri Yukestewar Giri with a "glass onion" magnifying glass and turn the cover on its side, so that the edge with the face is nearest to you. Actually you don't even need a mirror except to get the dual penguin-dance/EAP head-kick effect, it's just staring the whole world in the face, as is: "man(kind) you should have seen them," indeed, really. But you may have to get up close to the cover and squint a bit; it's rather small.
From the aforementioned Poe novel:
"It was more than an hour after being taken on board the Penguin before he could give any account of himself, or be made to comprehend the nature of the accident which had befallen our boat."
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Post by Valis on Jun 7, 2007 3:43:10 GMT -5
some great stuff beatlies, I've been wondering about the albumcover. The armchair is not a real pic of an armchair but a black dot in the shape of it. So in a way it could be interpreted as a hole, an absence. It reminded me of the cover for Led Zeppelin's Presence. I'll paste the comments of the sleevedesigner for Presence here, but what does it all mean lol. All Love Jan "Presence Led Zeppelin! Christ, what was bigger than Led Zeppelin? The most powerful and notorious band in the galaxy. Musically, personally, managerially and mythically. So how the hell do you approach design for such a colossus? Well, firstly, with great trepidation, and then secondly with courtesy and diplomacy, deference at all times, and then with a strong desire to please and not upset nor disappoint. We needed something so powerful, so huge that it made you weak just to think of it. And what did we come up with... a little bitty black object sitting on an ordinary table surrounded by a rather ordinary family. An ordinary family? What's the power in that? But no ordinary setting this, and certainly no ordinary object. Perhaps it was a cosmic battery, or a spiritual relic or alien artifact, exposure to which seemed essential - it filled your life, it sustained you, it bathed you in mysterious emanations. It was vital for growing infants, for education, useful to science and financial institutions, handy for both leisure and sport, indispensable even to romance. It was central to everyday existence - utilitarian, religious and addictive. So powerful that back in those days everyone had one, so powerful that nowadays one didn't need one any longer, so pervasive that the memory alone would suffice, so powerful that it didn't actually need to be there, no depth cues nor shadows cast by the object, more a hole than a thing, an absence rather than a presence. So powerful that the mere suggestion was enough, like a secretly whispered word, like a radical idea or a desert wind, substantial but not needing substance, just like the band, their music and their reputation. Much to our surprise, and I think to their credit, they embraced it wholeheartedly, entitling the album after the image. I hope they love it still, as much as I do." www.stormthorgerson.com/
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gar
Hard Day's Night
Posts: 26
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Post by gar on Jun 7, 2007 8:27:41 GMT -5
The chair is there... or else it's a hole wth illustrations on it but what's with the way you are supposed to fold it? I don't like folding my cd booklets to be honest... this is from memoryalmostfull.com: "After completing the album I then started thinking about the album artwork and how I’d want it to look. I really wanted to make the CD a desirable object. Something that I know I’d want to pick up from the shelf, something that would make people curious. I hope our final concept has done that. The album sleeve itself includes an etching by a friend of mine, Humphrey Ocean. As with the album lyrics, I’m looking forward to seeing how people might interpret the artwork."So, there we have an open invitation, haven't we? Is that make-up on one of the brushes? I checked out this Humphrey Ocean and found this portrait he did: www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp07800&role=art&rNo=0if you click on to portrait 8 and 9 (Linda McCartney and Lindda with Paul) they are unavailable due to copyright reasons. Has anybody got an idea how they look?
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Post by Valis on Jun 7, 2007 9:13:36 GMT -5
HAHA.
by the way the chair really looks like a rorschahh blot. It reminded me A lot of Gnarls Barkley'S VIDEO FOR Crazy.
it's a hole . an emptiness to me.
No Spoon, No Paul
All Love Jan
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Post by Mellow Yellow on Jun 7, 2007 14:21:56 GMT -5
Valis, I disagree with the write up about the Presence album cover. The black object is an Obelisk and is used in occult rituals. It is placed in with a normal 50's esque looking family as Zeppelin's way of telling us how the occult is there in everyday peoples lives right in their faces. It has become "normalized" if you will.
Maybe it's prophetic. Their way of saying "In the future, occultic rituals will a part of even the most conservative peoples lives, whether they know it or not." But they obviously seem very pleased to have the obelisk.... That's just my 2 cents.
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Post by JoJo on Jun 7, 2007 16:49:22 GMT -5
Say, are the extra songs any good? Eh, not especially, at least on the first listen. However, some of the things he says on the 26 minute interview where he discusses each of the songs has some interesting bits. *cough*
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Post by JoJo on Jun 7, 2007 16:57:00 GMT -5
So, there we have an open invitation, haven't we? Is that make-up on one of the brushes? I checked out this Humphrey Ocean and found this portrait he did: www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp07800&role=art&rNo=0if you click on to portrait 8 and 9 (Linda McCartney and Lindda with Paul) they are unavailable due to copyright reasons. Has anybody got an idea how they look? No, never have seen it. But it's interesting that in the interview I mentioned above, he says he likes it when people find alternate interpretations to his songs, if they find meaning beyond what he thought was just a simple song, then that's great. Kinda a turnaround from what I always understood to be his outlook to be on that activity, although it was John who seemed to get worked up about it more than any of the others. So does this mean Sir Paul gives his blessing to look for clues in Beatles songs?
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Post by ezwizard on Jun 7, 2007 19:30:22 GMT -5
Here's a question that I don't think I've seen here yet regarding the title itself. Sorry if it's been previously mentioned.
Does anyone else think that Memory Almost Full might possibly elude to someone who has been successfully programmed to the point where its no longer necessary?
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Jude
Hard Day's Night
Acting Naturally
Posts: 34
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Post by Jude on Jun 7, 2007 22:03:37 GMT -5
Eh, not especially, at least on the first listen. However, some of the things he says on the 26 minute interview where he discusses each of the songs has some interesting bits. *cough*Wow, thanks JoJo! And the mysterious files sharer....whoever you are!
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Jude
Hard Day's Night
Acting Naturally
Posts: 34
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Post by Jude on Jun 7, 2007 22:14:02 GMT -5
The cd itself, don't know if this is how it's imprinted on the regular version, this is from the 2 cd edition: A very much beat up (abandoned really) Volkswagon Beetle.. Anything else? Maybe not significant, but there are penguins on the canister of brushes....elementary ones, perhaps?
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Post by CoconutFudge on Jun 8, 2007 2:39:29 GMT -5
Here's a question that I don't think I've seen here yet regarding the title itself. Sorry if it's been previously mentioned. Does anyone else think that Memory Almost Full might possibly elude to someone who has been successfully programmed to the point where its no longer necessary? That's a veeeeeeery interesting point there! Could very well be. That would be something!
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Post by il ras on Jun 8, 2007 8:24:36 GMT -5
f i l es r not dwn ehm able... ;D
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Post by JoJo on Jun 8, 2007 14:37:33 GMT -5
f i l es r not dwn ehm able... ;D All set.
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Post by JoJo on Jun 22, 2007 20:49:22 GMT -5
Someone made an observation over at the Maccacentral forum, that one of the songs on the bonus CD of the deluxe edition is entitled "222"... and that the issue # of the famous Batman comic is.. #222. NIR Batman comic thread
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Post by il ras on Jun 22, 2007 21:46:10 GMT -5
and it's 1\3 of 666 (if this can mean something...)
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Post by CoconutFudge on Jun 23, 2007 2:30:43 GMT -5
Someone made an observation over at the Maccacentral forum, that one of the songs on the bonus CD of the deluxe edition is entitled "222"... and that the issue # of the famous Batman comic is.. #222. NIR Batman comic threadWow! I love this clue. Thanks so much for sharing this!
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