The past few weeks have seen major birthday milestones for two musicians who were key members of two of the biggest bands in popular music history - bands that also happen to be two of my favorites. What's more, these two musicians share a number of characteristics, both in terms of their approaches to music and in the way that, despite receiving widespread praise and admiration, they are sometimes slightly (and unfairly) overshadowed by deceased former bandmates.
Paul McCartney, who became famous as one of the Beatles, turned 80 on June 18. I wrote a brief retrospective of his career in Chinese that I posted on Facebook to commemorate the occasion, though I was far from the only one to acknowledge it (one of the more notable public tributes for McCartney's birthday was by Sean Lennon, son of his former Beatles bandmate John, who posted a cover of "Here, There and Everywhere"). I wrote a far more extensive retrospective here on my blog on the occasion of McCartney's 70th birthday. However, it really should be updated, as in the intervening decade, McCartney has remained amazingly prolific for a man of his age, releasing three albums of new songs, New, Egypt Station and McCartney III, all strong contenders for the list I included in that retrospective of "Paul McCartney’s Best Post-Beatles Studio Albums". If I was still narrowing it down to ten albums, New would displace Flowers in the Dirt and Egypt Station might displace Venus and Mars, Run Devil Run or Electric Arguments (though those are all quite good as well, so it'd be a tough call). Another demonstration of his continuing musical versatility came in 2012, when he collaborated with the three remaining members of Nirvana on the screaming rocker "Cut Me Some Slack".
There is no question that Paul McCartney is one of the most talented songwriters in popular music history. In fact a strong argument could be made that as a writer of melody in particular, he is among the greatest in any genre of music, up there with people like Mozart. Bob Dylan, also one of the greatest songwriters of the past century, once acknowledged that he was in "awe" of the ease with which McCartney came up with original melodies, and another of the greats, Paul Simon, has expressed similar sentiments. Despite this, there is still a tendency among a few critics, fans, and less aware members of the general public to idolize the late John Lennon over McCartney, a phenomenon I address at greater length in the blog post referenced above. You're still far more likely to see a T-shirt or poster with a picture of Lennon than McCartney. However, I get the impression that by now most people who have more than a passing knowledge of pop music recognize McCartney's genius. In any case, there's no comparing the two's solo careers at this point, as McCartney's has gone on for more than four decades longer and has been by far more prolific.
A more recent birthday was that of Brian May of Queen, who turned 75 on July 19. As I did with the members of the Beatles, I wrote retrospectives of all the members of Queen a decade ago, including one on May when he turned 65. May has not been particularly prolific in terms of new music recently, as he has yet to release a solo album this century, though he has written and released a number of new songs, including several he did with singer Kerry Ellis and the song "New Horizons" commemorating the space probe of the same name. But he has remained impressively active on many other fronts, touring with Queen bandmate Roger Taylor and singer Adam Lambert (I saw them myself when they came to Taiwan a number of years ago); playing guitar for numerous artists, one of the most prominent examples being Lady Gaga, on what I consider her best song, "You and I"; various endeavors in the fields of science, space exploration and stereophotography, including publishing the book Queen in 3-D featuring his stereoscopic photos of the groups, and animal rights activism, something he shares with McCartney, with both of them speaking out strongly against fox hunting in Britain.
One thing that May shares with McCartney is a meticulous approach to arrangement, something that can be seen most clearly on songs like "Good Company", which May painstakingly assembled from numerous guitar overdubs to create a backing track that sounded like a trad jazz band. They also share an obvious affinity for melody. But also like McCartney, he has at times been overshadowed by a former bandmate who died decades ago, in his case Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury. It is true that in addition to his incredible vocals, amazing showmanship, and impressive piano playing, Mercury was Queen's most prolific composer, writing the largest share of their songs, including many of their biggest hits. But in the band's golden years in the 1970s, May wrote as much of the band's material as Mercury, with Taylor and bassist John Deacon writing much less, and while in the 1980s Mercury and May's songwriting dominance ended, with all four members more or less writing equal amounts, May made major writing contributions to all the group's albums. May didn't write as many big hit singles as Mercury, but he did write such hits as "We Will Rock You", "Save Me", "Hammer to Fall", "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "I Want It All", as well as many great album tracks like "'39", "The Prophet's Song", "Tie Your Mother Down", "It's Late", and "Dead on Time". "'39" in particular is brilliant, probably the only song by a major rock band to portray the effects of time dilation as outlined in Einstein's theory of relativity. May was also responsible for some of Queen's most lyrically thought-provoking songs, such as "Put Out the Fire" and the abovementioned "Hammer to Fall" and "'39". But Mercury's death, like Lennon's, has removed him to the pantheon of dead rock gods alongside people like Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin, so inevitably his bandmates get a lot less attention. Not that May seems to mind particularly. Still, it's worth remembering that, just as Paul McCartney was as much responsible for the Beatles' greatness as John Lennon, Brian May and his guitar were as essential a part of Queen's sound as Freddie Mercury's voice. Not to mention, being both the holder of a PhD in astrophysics and the writer of iconic songs like "We Will Rock You" and "Hammer to Fall" is an achievement that few could ever hope to emulate.
So best wishes to both McCartney and May, as well as to other musical greats who have recently celebrated birthdays, such as Brian Wilson (80) and McCartney's fellow Beatle Ringo Starr (82). I hope they'll be around to make music for many more years.
