So, it's the day after the Grammys, and you may still be wondering who that "hella old" man with the droopy eyes playing the weird left-handed bass was on the telecast last night. You know, the guy next to the guy from Foo Fighters and that one other ancient-looking man in the tight jeans who looks like he belongs on one of those chopper shows on cable.
Those were Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen. Grohl is in fact the old drummer from Nirvana, who broke up in 1994 after their lead singer and Courtney Love's husband, Kurt Cobain, killed himself. So he's pretty old too. Almost 50 now, I think. Maybe he is 50. [He's 42 - ed.]
Springsteen is from New Jersey, and kinda sounds Southern rock and all of his songs are about working and sweating or something. The Eagles' Joe Walsh was onstage too, but I don't have time to explain that right now. Watch The Big Lebowski. He's that guy.
Now this McCartney guy...
No, he isn't a Rolling Stone, and he is not in fact, David Bowie. McCartney was the bassist and sometime guitarist in the Beatles, a very influential pop-rock band, active from 1960 until 1970.
You may see pictures of the other guys in the band in history books and on Wikipedia. His bandmate, John Lennon, dated Yoko Ono and made some music until he was shot in 1980 by Jodie Foster.
Above is a clip of McCartney with his backing band, the Beatles, in, like, 1963 doing a song called "Yesterday." The drummer, George Carlin, would go on to star on Shining Time Station on PBS and the other man, George Harrison, did a music video with puppets. He was also known to smoke pot. Pretty cool, huh?
Your grandmother and grandfather loved the Beatles. They were on TV all the time, and they came out with about, I guess, 12 or so albums that are full of songs about love, drugs, and these weird stories about streets and telephones. These were made with no help from iPads or computers. Total hippie shit, I swear.
But this stuff also made your older relatives want to explore the world, question authority, and maybe even pick up a guitar or learn to play the piano.
After the band broke up and Lennon shaved his head and started a punk band with his Japanese wife, McCartney went solo, sometimes playing with a band called Wings with his wife Linda.
He did some songs that have been covered by Guns 'N Roses, I think Ke$ha, and maybe even sampled by some rappers. I dunno. Google it. Oh! There was this one song he did called "Jet," which is pretty hard, too.
Did we mention that McCartney is a vegetarian? He did that before PETA even existed I think. He was once on The Simpsons, that show comes on before Family Guy and where everyone looks yellow and deformed.
He once married a chick with only one leg, a decade ago, I think. It was all kinds of weird, but he's hella old so he probably can't get the kind of chicks he did in the '60s. Haha. He's like 75 now, so he gets girls with money. The Beatles made millions of dollars back in the day.
But yeah, just Google him if you feel like it, or ask a teacher or maybe even a parent. They may look at you kinda weird, and even get mad at you, but it's only because they care.
We suggest listening to The Beatles' "White Album" or even going on YouTube searching for them and The Ed Sullivan Show. It's all in black-and-white, and everything looks like it was filmed with Instagram.
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