Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono mend their fences
Yoko Ono says she’s thankful Paul McCartney appears to have gotten over his grudge against her.
McCartney, in a recent Rolling Stone interview, said he’s getting along fine with the widow of John Lennon, his old songwriting partner. The bad feelings had gone back decades, to when the Beatles were falling apart and other group members resented the appearance of Lennon’s new girlfriend in the recording studio.
McCartney said that time was a great healer and thought that “if John loved her, there’s got to be something. He’s not stupid.” He said once he decided to let go of his grudge that they’ve been getting along fine.
Ono, in an interview with the Associated Press, said it was good to hear those words from McCartney and “I’m very thankful.”
“I never felt too bad about Paul,” she said. “He was my husband’s partner and they did a great job and all that. They seemed to have a lot of fun, and I respected that.”
Some of the bad feelings had persisted in the post-Beatles years, as Ono was a regular partner in business affairs surrounding the group after Lennon’s death in 1980 – perhaps most notably when McCartney expressed a desire to change songwriting credits to “McCartney-Lennon” instead of “Lennon-McCartney” for some of the songs most associated with him.
McCartney told Rolling Stone he admires Ono’s work. She’s still making and releasing new music at age 80, like McCartney is at age 71.
Said McCartney: “She’s badass.”
“Well, he’s a rocker,” Ono said.
Anderson calls Reed ‘prince,’ ‘fighter’
Laurie Anderson says her late husband Lou Reed was a “prince and a fighter” whose music reflected his love of life.
Anderson’s tribute to Reed was published Thursday in a suburban New York newspaper. Reed died Sunday at 71 from complications following a liver transplant.
Anderson wrote that she brought Reed from the hospital to their home in Springs, N.Y., one week earlier. She says he “spent his last days here being happy and dazzled by the beauty and power and softness of nature.”
Anderson says Reed was a “tai chi master” who was practicing its forms with his hands when he died.
She signs the letter as “his loving wife and eternal friend.”
The birthday bunch
Singer Jay Black (Jay and the Americans) is 75. Actress Stefanie Powers is 71. Keyboardist Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake and Palmer is 69. Singer-actor J.D. Souther (“Nashville”) is 68. Singer k.d. lang is 52. Actor David Schwimmer (“Friends”) is 47. Rapper Nelly is 39. Actor Danny Cooksey (“Diff’rent Strokes”) is 38. Guitarist Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie) is 38. Actor-singer Kendall Schmidt (“Big Time Rush”) is 23.